


There's Something in the Lake

by SioDymph



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Hypnotism, M/M, Mermaids, Mystery Trio AU, foxy merman au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-05-30 20:18:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 22,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6438757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SioDymph/pseuds/SioDymph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a strange encounter, there's now a temperamental siren terrorizing the lakeside. While he's always loved tagging along with his brother and Fiddleford on their own investigations, Stan finds himself tackling this monster on his own for the first time and begins unraveling the mysteries that surround this strange creature and the murky waters of Lake Gravity Falls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Look at This Stuff

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so here's another story I've been thinking about and finally got the courage to write down. It involves a great OC created by cirilee on Tumblr and I just couldn't resist. They're a lovely artist and have a bunch of great OCs so you should check them all out http://cirilee.tumblr.com

Stan grumbled as he walked along the lakeside. The smoke from his cigarette mixed with the morning fog rolling off the water's waves and clinging to the neighboring woods. Maybe if he wasn't in such a bitter mood Stan would of appreciated the mysterious, adventurous atmosphere surrounding him. It was usually the kind of stuff that set him on edge and made him excited to be living with his brother out in these weird woods.

However unlike usual mornings, today Stan found himself wrestling with a wide mix of negative thoughts and emotions. If Stan was honest with himself there were a lot of things making him unhappy, but he didn't want to get to trapped feeling too sorry for himself so he tried to focus on one thing that was bothering him and move on from there.

The biggest problem, at least the one Stan decided to make the biggest for now, was the fact that every single thing that Stan walked past while in town would suddenly remind him of his past relationships.

A motorcycle weaving through town and out onto the open road would bring Stan back to his younger days fresh on the streets, riding behind a much more experienced traveler. His long blond hair constantly slapping him though Stan would never mind. And sometimes, he would catch the man's eyes glowing red like hot coals while speeding off through the night...

Bright neon signs shining through the morning fog would remind Stan of how he'd see many similar signs while stumbling through the streets drunk yet happy as can be. Or how those small signs could shine brightly from high above the cityscape, the few times he was able to overcome his fear of heights. Long nights full of neon lights, hand in hand with a snarky, lanky man with vibrant blue hair...

Advertisements for dumb vintage films, carts of wilting flowers and stupid bubblegum-pop music floating out of passing shops would almost bring tears to Stan's eyes, almost. He'd stop himself before he thought too much about long flowing brown hair, sweet laughter or cute hot pants. Or remembered how he had felt so happy then that he was utterly confident it would be them together, forever...

Whatever it was in the air, it seemed like every sight and sound he passed would remind Stan of every relationship, good and bad, he'd been in in his life. And no matter what it wouldn't give him a moment of peace. Even retreating out here to the lakeshore didn't help much. The churning waves were just reminding him of countless awkward dates out on the beach and boardwalks in his home town.

Stan sighed, making the last few clouds of hot smoke trailing out of his mouth mingle with the cool fog some more. They had all been failures, every single one. He never made it work with anyone. He was all alone, he was a loser. He'd failed in school, he'd failed out on the streets on his own, he'd let down his whole family, he'd failed to make anything of himself besides a name with the police as a known grifter, he had more debts then he ever hoped of paying in this life time and now here he was out hiding in the middle of nowhere and living under his brother's roof, wasting Ford's space and wasting Ford's money and-

Stan shook his head. No getting off track. He wasn't gonna bother trying to force himself to have a more positive outlook or whatever but if he was gonna get mad at himself, it would be one thing at a time. If he kept on going down that train of thought he doubted he be able to keep any steady rationality and he'd end up doing something stupid.

So he just continued his way alongside the lake, coming to the end of his cigarette and letting himself feel lonely and disappointingly inadequate. Just as the morning fog started to burn away, an unnerving sight seemed to emerge not to far away from Stan. It was a human-like figure splayed out and face-down in the sand.

Immediately Stan ran forwards. While the was no crime in the small town in the normal sense it was still a very, very dangerous place to be. Especially at night. Who knew what this person must of gone through. Were they even still alive?

Worried thoughts tore through Stan's mind as he raced forwards. But once he finally reached the figure the whirlwind of thoughts in his mind drew completely blank. The person's long matted hair covered much of their face and their torso and he couldn't deny that that looked human. The same could no be said for the person's lower half. Where legs and feet should of been there was only a blobby tangled mess of... Tentacles?

As Stan went to touch the weird mass, the human half of the stranger began to stir. Weakly, the person coughed and struggled to look up. When Stan moved closer the person shrank back and began shivering. But when he went to say something reassuring, the person looked at them straight on and Stan felt hairs rise up on the back of neck. The creature's eyes began glowing in a bright cyan blue and and a strange calm seemed to overtake the creature's face despite the fear still in their eyes.

" _Human... Stop this instant!"_

When he spoke the words made his whole body go rigid and drew him in. He couldn't look away or resist. Faintly in the back of his head, Stan realized they were speaking in Spanish, but for the life of him he couldn't pinpoint the exact strange dialect they spoke in.

" _Please... Please human, don't hurt me!_ "

All at once though, the creature began coughing and wheezing and the glowing light was extinguished. It tried to force the lights to return but it died away even faster the second time. The creature curled in on itself as they coughed some more and grew dangerously pale.

And as Stan looked closer, he saw how dry their skin looked and how their mass of tentacles were quickly flattening out. It reminded Stan of those dead jellyfish he and Ford would find along the beach as kids. This thing, this person was definently gonna die if Stan didn't do something soon. Now actually.

Reaching down, Stan tried to lift the person. And even though he didn't even look strong enough to even move in their current state he desperately used the last of their consciousness to fight him off.

" _No! Human, don't you dare! Don't hurt me human!_ "

Stan ignored their protests and scooped them up, pinning his hands down before he could try scratching at Stan's face. The whole while they would cry out and squirm but Stan refused to drop them. It was just a couple of yards till they got to the water, and then a little further then that till he could safely put this thing back in the water without fear of being beached again. All the while though, the creature was a crazed mess and his bottom half dragged heavily through the sand. He hoped that going closer to the water would help this creature realize he wasn't trying to hurt them but instead, much to Stan's annoyance, the creature's reaction seemed to only get more panicked and aggressive the longer Stan held him.

"Would you knock it off! I'm trying to save your life here!" Stan said, struggling to keep a solid grip on the creature who by this point was clearly putting their final effort into escaping.

As Stan went to readjust his grip though, he felt some of the dry tendrils slap against his leg. Then a zapping shock quickly followed by a fiery burn wrapped around it. It took all of Stan's willpower not to drop the monster right there while he gasped and cried out.

Just a few more feet, he kept telling himself as he dragged the monster and his throbbing leg into the water, you only have to go a little bit further.

Finally he leaned down and placed the monster into the water as slowly as his burning leg would allow. As soon as they were out of his hands he grabbed at his leg and assessed the damage. Bright red lines of skin decorated his leg and started rising as the irritation grew. He'd have to get some aloe and ice on that, hopefully it wasn't poisonous or anything.

He would of yelled at the monster, already had a few choice words and gestures to show them. But when he looked up to where he'd placed the monster seconds before there was only empty water. He looked all around the shallow lake waters. But the lakeside, while murky and still coated in light morning fog, was void of knotted messes of long brown hair or giant jellyfish tentacles.

Well, there went about five minutes of his life he'd never get back with only angry red marks on his leg to show for it. "Ungrateful jerk," Stan muttered as he stood back up, whatever it was the thing was long gone. For now at least.

With that, he prepared for the long walk back to his brother's shack in the woods, wincing as pain from the burns returned with a vengeance whenever he moved his leg. The cooler water had been nice on his leg, but now being in contact with air again made the marks sting. Stan tried to ignore the pain as he went along though. After all, he'd walked off much worse situations in the past, compared to those mermaid-jellyfish stings were inconvenient at best.

Hopefully Stanford would take these weird burns as enough proof of the monster for now. He had no doubt that he would want to know all the details as soon as possible.


	2. Isn't It Neat?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And another chapter down!

"So what do you fellas think?" Stan grit his teeth and Ford pushed on the stings again for the umpteenth time. All but ignoring Stan still as he carefully inspected and measured out the size of the marks.

Fiddleford meanwhile watched from afar, fiddling around with several small bits of machinery and sipping a cup of coffee. "I'm not quite sure Stan... Are you certain it had hypnotic abilities?"

"Pretty dang sure Fidds! The thing's eyes started glowing, and I couldn't move or none when he started talking."

Ford hummed while in deep thought and got up, reaching for a notebook and pen and jotting down his notes. "In that case I feel we may have some sort of siren on our hands."

"Sirens? Aren't those the ones that sing though? And make hallucinations of the stuff you love?"

"That's what they're known for. But I think this may be some sort of subspecies or a closely related cousin to them. I really wish you were able to bring it here so we could study it in person!"

"Well seeing as it was getting all dried up when I got there, and did all this to my leg in like ten seconds," he gestured to his leg as he spoke. "I really doubt I could of gotten him back to the shack Poindexter. Not without turning into some piece of modern art first. Mind tossing me the aloe?"

Ford in turn handed Stan the small jar of cooling gel they kept in the refrigerator. "That's too bad. Say, what were you doing out by the lake so early for anyways?"

"Not much, just going for a walk. Thinking about stuff." Stan had to stop himself from sighing in relief as the aloe gel spread across his burns, all but dousing the fiery sensation. "Going wherever my feet took my I guess."

"But do you know the exact place you found that siren?"

"Pretty much. But I doubt that thing would stick around the place they got beached."

"That's true..." Ford muttered as he went back to scribbling down notes. Stan noticed now he was doing a rough sketch of the burns on his leg. "But the lake's simply a basin formed by the waterfalls. It then split into smaller rivers and streams that weave through the woods. There isn't any other continuing waterways back to the ocean. So that means your siren is stuck in the lake."

"That also means he had to have fallen down the waterfall at some point too." Stan couldn't help but cringe at the thought. While not in anyways the worlds largest or most ferocious waterfalls, the falls of Gravity Falls were still quite intimidatingly large and Stan doubted any person or monster in their right mind would willingly try and take on the falls. Especially since there wasn't anyway back out of the lake.

"Indeed. We need to investigate this further! I think you may be on to something big here Stan. You see I've never been able to throughly investigate the lake since I've focused my research mainly on the forests and cave networks. But I have no doubt there's monsters lurking in those waters as well. If we get there now I'm sure we can take out the boat and-" All of Ford's building excitement was snuffed out when a baby monitor on the counter burst to life. Inhuman screeches came out of it almost making the counter rattle.

"Dammit!" Fiddleford hissed. "Shifty must've worked himself up again, poor thing."

Seeing the confusion of Stan's face Ford answered. "He broke it's arm yesterday, when he tried to turn into a mouse and jump off the top of his containment chamber. But since a he's so squishy we couldn't cast it so we've been keeping him on a high dosage of pain medication until we can figure out how to reset the arm and heal it properly."

"Come on, it's cruel to keep him waiting too long, better get down there and try to fix him up again!" Fiddleford urged.

For a brief moment Ford looked caught between going down to the basement or heading out to the lakeside. But in the end he sighed and shrugged on his own lab coat and hurried with Fiddleford out of the kitchen and towards the door to the basement. "Stan?" He asked turning back to his brother, "Would you mind going and investigating the creature by yourself? I really can't leave the Shapeshifter like this but I don't think it's wise to leave that siren to its own devices. Especially since there's lots of people in town this time of year."

"Sure thing Ford! Don't worry, Stan Pines is on the case!" Stan said dramatically kicking open the front door.

Fiddleford was quickly at his side before he left. "Hang on a minute! You said that creature was controlling your mind, right?"

"Yeah but I'll be careful Fidds, I'll only look at it from far away. If I can even find the sucker at all."

"Well just I case," Stan soon found an strange looking metal-plated band pushed into his hands. "You should probably put on this. It'll cancel out any mind control it tries to throw your way. Water proof too."

While well-intentioned it was still a rather ugly looking device. And by now the lake was going to be filled with townsfolk and tourists. "Thanks, but if I go to the lake wearing this, I'm gonna look like a crazy person Fidds. You got anyway to conceal this thing?

Fiddleford thought for a moment before hurrying to a closets and shuffling around some, "How 'bout this?"

~~~

Stan pouted as he pushed his small boat into the water and away from the docks. He constantly felt like eyes were on him but whenever he turned around to snap at people they were all hurrying to face the opposite direction.

It never bothered him to have his hair grown out before but now he felt completely ridiculous with his long hair being crowned by a giant rings of flowers. Like some goddamn hippie. And all those folks kept gawking at him, he could just feel it. Probably thought he, his brother and Fidds were even crazier now then ever before.

But he shook his head and tried to stop thinking about them. They're just dumb people in a dumb town. They weren't hurting him and they didn't matter right now. Right now there was an actual monster on the loose who could be hurting people. And Stan hoped he could spot them before they caught any of the fishers first.

And so started the exciting-quickly-turned-painfully-dull search for the strange siren. About an hour in Stan was feeling hopeless and incredibly bored when he finally caught sight of that mass of tentacles slipping through the water, swimming along side an elderly couple who were sailing way past the open lake waters and towards a far-off cove lined with sharp rocks.

Revving the engine on his small boat, Stan raced to catch up with them. Hands guiding the boat in a white knuckled grip. As he got closer he cut the engine and coasted till he was within listening distance of the couple. He soon realized they were already under the siren's spell; their eyes were swirling with glowing greens and blues and they'd keep laughing constantly while talking.

"-and so we decided to come out here for one last adventure before our son got up the courage to throw us in the old folks home!" The husband finished, still happily rowing to his death.

" _Perfect!_ " Stan immediately recognized the voice of the siren. Now he was speaking to the couple in English, though their accent and weird dialect still hung on their words. "So you fear no one will miss you? I highly doubt it since you seem like such lovely, wonderful people!"

The wife giggled. "Oh my, that's very kind of you sir. Oh, what a gentleman!"

"You know, if you hate the idea of going to a home for old folks... _You could always stay with me instead~_ " The siren crooned, leaning up on the side of their small boat, grinning from ear to ear.

But before he could say anything more, a thick loop of rope was thrown around them and they were yanked off the side of the boat. "Gotcha! Ya monster!" Stan cheered pulling tight the rope around his catch and tugging them closer. Being friends with Fiddleford certainly had many pros.

Caught by surprise, the siren lost control of their powers and the couple was freed from its spell, blinking confusedly. "What, how did we drift off this far?" The husband asked, looking around in a daze. "I could of sworn we were just by the docks..."

"It's ok folks!" Stan said, putting on his showman voice and stance. "My pal here was just playing some pranks on you. But they're sure to not bother you again. Right, buddy?"

"You muther-" Stan quickly shoved the creature under water and waved the couple off.

"Sorry for the inconvenience. And enjoy the rest your vacation people!"

In turn the couple just shrugged and began rowing back into the open waters. He hardly payed any mind to the outraged monster struggling in his hold until they were well off.

"What the hell is your problem human!?!"

"What the hell is your problem? Going around picking off dumb old people?"

"That was my biggest meal in weeks!" The siren said outraged. Suddenly the creature took a deep breath and stilled, looking back up to Stan with their face uneasily serene, eyes glowing again. " _Perhaps you would like to take there place? Come on in human, don't you want to be the big hero and help people~_ "

"People? Eh, depends. But monsters? Heck. No."

That wiped the fake look right off the monster's face. "What? W-Why isn't this working?!"

"That's for me to know and you to never find out." Stan replied coolly before hoisting the monster up out of the water and looping more rope around his arms, torso and a few of their tentacles.

"H-How dare you! I demand you let me go this instant!" He cried out, now only able to bob up and down in the water.

"And let you go after more old people? Don't think so." Once the siren was for all purposes leashed to the side of his boat, Stan took a seat and pulled out one of Ford's journals. "But I do got a bunch of questions my brother wants to know about you so let's get started."


	3. Stanford's Ready to Know What the People Know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's another chapter! ... Yeah, don't have much really to say besides that.

"Let's start out with an easy one. Got a name?"

"..."

"Unless you'd rather me call you crap like 'monster' or 'the thing' more. Oh I know, how'bout 'he-siren'? That sure sounds-"

"Mermarcos. That is my name."

"Huh, Mermarcos it is then. By the way, mine's Stan. Stanley Pines."

Stan went down the long, ridiculously long, list of information Stanford wanted to know and much to his surprise, the siren willingly answered most his questions. At least Mermarcos seemed willing, for all Stan knew they were lying through their teeth about everything. The first twenty-five-or-so questions were rather simple things like height, ways of living or diet. (to which they had proudly replied was mostly made-up by "foolish humans who ask too many questions" before laughing. After Stan splashed him in the face a few times he then mentioned most of his regular diet was actually fish, but he also said that his kind also required meat of stronger, bloodier sorts as well from time to time.)

"It's the iron mostly I think. Can't seem to find any quite like that from humans though."

"So what, you just drink people's blood like a vampire."

"No, that would be a waste." As Mermarcos continued, his rows of sharp teeth seemed to shine brighter and for a moment his eyes glimmered in that hypnotic blue. "When I go after a human, a devour the whole thing."

"Alright then, that's uhh, that's something."

"Every organ, even the ones filled with acids."

"That's great, Marcos."

"Bones and all."

"Whatever, you eat everything. I get it." Stan continued trying to sound apathetic, though he was paler now more then ever. "Speaking of feeding though, Poindexter also wants to know if you have- What?!"

"Have what exactly?"

"What the heck Ford?!" Stan reread the question multiple times to be certain he was reading correctly, cursing his brother's name the whole while. "Apparently since normal jellyfish, oh no sorry, _scyphozoan_ have an orifice that acts as both their mouth and... anus? Do you-"

"Do I what Stanley?"

"Do you have multiple orifices and organs for feeding?"

Marcos was grinning ear to ear as he spoke, relishing in Stan's discomfort. "Why don't you come down here and find out for yourself human!"

"Ugh, gross!"

Marcos burst out laughing as Stan recoiled more onto the boat in revulsion. And he continued laughing, even as Stan splashed him again directly in the face.

"That's it! Next question! Hopefully these aren't nearly as bad... Why the hell would Stanford even need to know that?!"

Unfortunately for Stan he found that when it came to Ford, he really, truly wanted to know everything. So after all the factoid-like questions were out of the way then came the more awkward, personal information Ford for some reason also wanted to know. And not to any of Stan's surprise, this is when Mermarcos also grew a lot more tight-lipped. Not the Stan could blame them, honestly, if some stranger came up to him and wanted to know about his family's history and all his own problems he'd be running in the opposite direction too.

But if Ford really wanted to know if this monster got along with their theoretical pod or if there would be a mermaid uprising then Stan was gonna find out one way or another. Much at the expense of the now rather ornery Mermarcos.

"Come on! Give me something! Just a yes or a no. Do you have a family?"

Marcos's only response was to huff indignantly and try for the umpteenth time to turn completely around so he wasn't looking at his captor.

"The sooner we get through this, the sooner I can let you go and you can go back to doing whatever it is you like to do... besides terrorizing old people."

"..."

"Can you at least tell me what gave you that scar? It looks like a real nasty piece of work." While talking, Stan had taken note of a giant scar he hadn't been able to see earlier that morning due to all the fog and sand. It stretched across his entire chest from their abdomen to one shoulder and was a web-like mess of once-shredded skin.

"Humans."

"Really? What kind of humans?"

Marcos turned back around to Stan, though he still wouldn't look up at him. "Fishers. When I was younger and less experienced, I tried to lure them all off their ship, but one of them broke from my spell and threw a harpoon at me."

"Ouch. And you didn't have anyone to help you with that wound? It looks really scarred."

"..."

"What about the lake? You have to know the only way into this place, water-wise is by those gigantic waterfalls. Why'd you do it?"

Instead of answering, Marcos let his forehead fall and press onto the lip of the boat and groaned.

"Look I'm just about as done with this as you are. But my brother-"

"It's not that, human! I'm starving!"

"Well then why don't we wrap this up then and I can let you go eat some fish or whatever."

"The fish here are disgusting! They all taste like sludge! Besides even if I did go and eat some they've all but disappear in these past few days."

"Why- Oh yeah! The fishing season..." Stan felt caught between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, if he let Marcos go they'd probably, no at this point definitely, go after more people. And to be honest, Stan doubted he'd be able to catch Marcos again to finish answering all these questions. But on the other hand, while it had been hard trying to get these last few answers out of Marcos, Stan new it would be even harder to get them out of a malnourished corpse. Plus, seeing the guy suffer now was uncomfortably reminding Stan of those years he spent out on the road before he and Ford reconciled...

Luckily for Stan, he also found a third option, one that worked rather well in his favor. "Hey Marcos! Do you think you can hold on for just a bit more?"

"Not for much longer." Marcos whined.

"Ok cause I got a proposition for you. How'bout we cut this meeting short and go get you some grub? Huh, that sound good?"

"... Very well Stan."

Without any warning, Stan hoisted Marcos completely out of the water and sat them onto then bench across from him. "Great! Actually now that I think about it, I was getting kinda hungry too. I don't know about you, but right now I'm feeling like burgers for lunch!"

"And will I be able to have any of these... burgers?"

"Yep! There's this joint across from the docks that doesn't obsess about all the federal policies so they'll make'em as rare as you want." As he talked, Stan unwound the ropes around Marcos's hands and torso and dropped them back onto the floor of the boat. "Soooo, that sound good to you?"

"As long as it doesn't kill me."

"Great! That's the spirit!" Stan cheered while revving the boat engine. Just before jetting off, Stan tossed a few towels folded under the benches to Marcos. "Put these over you bottom half, don't want people freaking out if they see me heading to the docks with a man-eating sea monster."

Grumbling, Marcos complied. Once they were all in place the small ship burst back to life, zipping back over the waters and leaping into the air as it crashed into the waves of larger boats.

While Stan smiled at the feeling, wind pulling his long, flowered hair back and sun shining on his face, Marcos continued to groan and curled up into the towels. Focusing all their will-power into not diving back off the boat and going after any of the humans lazing about or frolicking in the water.

 


	4. Stomping Around on Those (What do You Call Them?) Oh, Feet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good golly! I'm sorry I completely forgot about this story for a while! I kinda got swamped with other stories and life in general. But I promise more chapters soon! In the meantime though, here's this.

Soon enough Stan was docking the ship and hopping off the boat.

"You uhh, stay here! The place is just down the street, I'll be right back with the grub!"

Marcos rolled his eyes as the human walked off the docks and onto the nearby road. "Not like I can go anywhere."

He'd always hung around people and their boats while they were out on the open water but he'd never gotten this close to the docks. There were always too many people and too many boats so close together, and all the propellers... Needless to say Marcos always tried to keep his distance from those.

And it looked pretty much the same above water as it did from under. Humans were all crawling about tying and untying knots of rope and hoisting large ships into and out of the water, some with vehicles and others with their bare hands. Not to mention the noise. All the humans felt the need to be constantly shouting at one another to communicate. Yelling orders at fellow humans trying to keep their ship from scraping against the bottom of the shore, small ones shrieking at their elders demanding attention, even the humans simply greeting one another had to shout out from across the docks rather then just walk closer to hear better.

Marcos, wrapped a towel around his ears and face to try and cancel out the obnoxious noise and the headache it was starting to bring on.

"Hey mister!"

One human was especially close to him now, he could just tell by their voice they had to of been a tiny child and they were practically yelling into his ear. Marcos tugged the towel tighter and groaned. Stanley better be back with the food soon otherwise he wouldn't be held accountable for what happened to these people and their stupid docks...

"Hey! Hey mister You there in the dingy! What's up with those freaky scars?"

Marcos quickly tore the towel away from his eyes to see the child staring at him with wide eyes. As if things couldn't get any worse. "Go away human." He growled at the child.

"But why do you have those weird scars? Did you try to juggle knives?"

"My scars are none of your business, child. Now go away and leave me be."

Marcos had hoped that he could still pull off the dangerous, threatening look while bundled up in towels but apparently not as the stubborn child showed no signs of listening to him."Ya'know, I saw a guy at a circus juggling knives once, it was so scary! And then, he started juggling these stick that he lit on fire!"

"Child, you are trying my patience. If you don't leave now you will surely face my wrath!" The child wouldn't get out of his face and there was noise everywhere! Marcos felt like he was seconds away from exploding from it all.

And the noise only further increased when a shrieking woman came up to him and scooped the child into her arms. She scolded at the child greatly for running off before turning towards Marcos and apologizing on behalf of her kid. But of course in the fashion of humans, she had to yell directly in his face.

"I'm so sorry!" She shouted over the revving engines from a ship next to them. "Jyelynn Smitty has never run away like that before! I hope she didn't bother you too much sir! Sir? Sir! Are you ok?"

Marcos looked back up to the lady when his eyes wandered off to the road Stan had run down. He was not ok. He was starving, he had a headache and he was roughly ten seconds away from strangling this lady and her stupid child where they stood and eating them alive.

"... No, Miss I'm fine~" He said with sweetness so artificial and fake it was physically paining Marcos. "You and your child go off now and have a lovely-"

"MA! MA! Look at his legs!!!" The kid screeched, squirming in his mother's grasp and pointing down at the edge of Marco's towel hoard.

Looking down, Marcos realized with horror that his towels had started slipping off when he went to cover his ears. While the child's eyes were filled with wonder and awe his Mother had blanched, and was preparing to shriek with trembling lips.

Just before the woman could open her mouth though, Marcos focused all the energy he had left in his body to controlling these two humans. His eyes glowed a brilliant blue and his voice grew layers of soothing tones. " _Be still woman. Don't be afraid~_ " he crooned. " _You have nothing to fear~_ "

Marcos waited. And surely enough the woman's gaping mouth shut and she put her child back on the ground. The two stood side by side, silent, eyes aglow with his hypnotism and focused solely on Marcos.

"Excellent! Now why don't you and your child go away now and never speak of this occurrence ever again! In fact, why don't you never recall seeing a strange man like myself on the docks. _Can you do that for me, madam?~_ "

The woman nodded dumbly before taking her child by the hand and finally, finally leaving him alone. Marcos sighed heavily and sank down into the boat and drawing the towels closer around him, making sure now that none of his bottom half was in sight. That was a close one, far to close for comfort. He didn't even want to think about what would of happened if that woman had shrieked before he stopped her...

And if his growing headache had been terrible before it felt nearly unbearable now that his powers and energy were further drained. He pushed the heels of his hands to his forehead furiously and rubbed them in small circles. Where the hell was Stan? Marcos seriously wished he hadn't taken the human up on his offer. Better to feel hungry down at the cold bottom of the lake where he could still think straight then up here being scorched by the summer sun and suffocated by the human's noise.

"Hey Marcos!" Looking back up, suddenly Stan was there again. He was blocking out the sun and if only for a brief moment giving Marcos some slight shade before hopping back on board. "Sorry for the wait. They were swamped when I got there! Pretty sure I may elbowed some teenager in the jaw when he tried to cut in front of me... But I got our food!"

As Stan rambled, he dumped a greasy paper bag into Marcos's lap and went about untethering the boat from the docks and jetting off once more. "I didn't know if you could eat any bread or anything so I had them just make a bunch of pattys for ya."

Carefully Marcos peeled back the papers surrounding the food and scrunched his nose up at the sight. Weird brown lumps oozing oil and a liquid only vaguely resembling blood in the weakest of terms. "Pattys?"

"Yeah, it's ground up meat, all mashed into a circle shape." Stan answered, piloting the boat back out onto the clear blue waters. But while they were moving out towards the outer edge of the lake, Marcos noted how Stan made sure their boat was still in sight of the other human vessels not too far away. "But I made sure they made'em super rare, so I think you should be ok."

When Stan cut the engine, silence, blessed silence finally reached his ears. "Oh thank the gods..." Marcos breathed a sigh of relief while carefully pulling out one of the chunks of meat.

"You ok?" Stan asked

"No, you humans can be so loud..." Marcos said groaning. "When you're all bunched together it gives me a migraine."

Stan shrugged at that, "Huh, can't deny that. And I guess your," he quickly flipped through the several pages of note he took for Ford. "Heightened hearing was it? Would only make things worse."

"I guess..." Marcos muttered, then took a bit of the mysterious browned meat. It wasn't the worst thing he ever ate. Definitely not the best by a long shot, but at least it wasn't muddy bottom feeding fish from the depths of the murky lake. The flavor was muddled by the overpowering presence of grease, but still Marcos could taste the tiny traces of wonderful blood he had been craving for nearly weeks now.

Despite Marcos seeing it as completely unneeded, Stan spoke again with a now full mouth of the sandwich he was eating. "Yeah, these burgers are pretty standard, better than fast food ones for sure. Back in my hometown there was this amazing burger joint, I forget the name but the made all kinds of crazy burgers."

"Where was your hometown exactly?" Marcos didn't care much but he felt obligated to hold a conversation now that Stan started one up again.

"Oh Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey. You ever stop by there?"

"The name sound familiar." Marcos thought for a moment before coming to a grim realization. "It's one of those shores where all the garbage from the big cities on the river collects."

"I guess, but you've been there right?"

"Been there? I wouldn't swim a hundred feet near that disgusting place or any place near it! It's a dump!"

"Hey!" Stan said defensively, "It might be a dump but that dump was my childhood!"

"And it's disgusting and dangerous!" He cringed at the very thought of it. Shards of human waste hidden in the sand and waves, cutting and slicing anything that swims. He'd been warned of such miserable places along the coastline.

Stan chuckled weakly, "Heh, can't argue with that. Me and Sixer would get splinters and glass cuts all the time. Probably lucky we never got tetanus or anything."

"Who is this Sixer, Poindexter person? You always bring him up."

"Oh, those are just nicknames for my brother, Stanford. The one who wanted to ask you a lot of questions."

"Ah yes, your mysterious brother of yours. Why does he want to know all these things anyway?"

Stan shrugged and smiled some at the thought. "He always likes to show off and look really smart. But as far as why, with Sixer who knows?"


	5. Ask Them My Questions and Get some Answers!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wowie! That took a lot longer then expected :S Hope this isn't too much of a let down for such a long wait. If it makes any difference I've been working on the next chapter while writing this one so hopefully that won't take a month to publish ha ha ha...

When Stan got back to the shack, Ford was practically waiting by the door. His tiny, squishy Shapeshifter sat clutching his shoulder in its sleep.

"Stanley! How did it go? Were you able to record any notes?"

Stan just sighed and handed him his notebook. "See for yourself, Poindexter."

Ford tore through the full pages of notes, eyes rapidly skimming over the pages. "This is... Much more thorough then I'd anticipated. How did you get the siren to answer all my research questions?"

"Heh, once I had the guy lassoed to my boat and promised to feed him he seemed rather compliant. But I'd take anything he says with a grain of salt, for all I know he was just goofing off. Also:"

As he went to pass Stanford into the kitchen he socked him harshly in the shoulder not holding a sleeping alien.

"That's for forcing me to ask a grown sea monster about their _orifices_! Why would you even need to know about that?!"

Stanford hissed and rubbed at his arm. "It's important to my research Stanley! I can't leave any of my investigations incomplete."

"Well next time give a guy a warning! Marcos looked like he was gonna drown me on the spot when I asked him!" Stan yelled back as he reached for the giant water pitcher they left in the fridge. It had been ridiculously hot out by the lake today and he was parched.

"Marcos?"

"Yeah. Apparently that's his name. Mermarcos." Stan sat down heavily at the dining room table across from Fiddleford and tossed him both the flower and mind-concealing headbands. "Thanks for these by the way Fidds. Only got called 'the Crazy Hippie Guy' seven times while out!" He voice was dripping in sarcasm before he started downing water straight from the pitcher.

"Classy." Fiddleford commented, sipping on some of his own ice tea. "It at least worked though right? You didn't have any trouble with this Marcos's mind-powers?"

Stan put the half-empty pitcher back on the table. "Nah, he couldn't do squat. Especially after I tethered him to the boat like a buoy."

"Good, I was worried if I hadn't made the plates correctly."

"Well I'm back right? So I guess it must work pretty well then."

"That's true." Fiddleford agreed.

Ford sat inbetween the two, he carefully placed Shifty off his shoulder and onto the tabletop and went back to studying Stan's notes. Stan went and poked one of its squishy cheeks and his eyes opened into grumpy slits.

"Hey little guy!" He teased. "How's the poor little alien-baby doing?" Stan noted that it had some sort of chainmail sleeve on one of it's tiny arms.

"We came up with that today." Fiddleford answered before Stan could ask. "Shifty's slime kept breaking down any paper cast we made for him. So I went ahead and made a little metal frame instead. So far it's been working well but we're keeping'em up here with us just in case we need to make any adjustments."

"Huh, that's kinda clever. And what about if he tries to shapeshift though."

"As long as he doesn't disrupt the arm or its cast then hopefully he'll heal up just fine. But we won't let him shapeshift none, that's why he's being so sullen."

"Poor baby." Stan joked, tickling it under its chin while its tired eyes glared at him. "These two are just torturing you, huh?"

"He's also on a high pain medication so he's still disoriented for now. But you probably should stop messing with him before he goes after your fingers, Stan." Ford warned while his nose was still in Stan's notes.

Stan huffed before moving his hands back away from Shifty's face. "Fine." He drank some more water while watching Ford read.

Stan hoped it didn't show, but it made him kinda of nervous to have Ford reading over his work so intently. Made him feel like he was back in High School English all over again. At least he looked happy with what he was reading, unlike any of his old high-school teachers.

"So, what was this Siren fella like?" Fiddleford asked.

"A real piece of work that's what. You know, when I first spotted him he was trying to eat this elderly couple?"

"Goodness." Fiddleford breathed.

"Yeah, luckily I got him all lassoed like you showed me before he ate anyone. When I first got him he was all whiny and short-tempered but I was expecting that. Once I got him talking though he seemed kinda cool actually, besides the whole man-eating thing. I even got him to eat hamburgers instead of people!"

That caught Ford's attention, his head snapped back out of the notebook. "Honestly Stan? This is supposed to be a serious investigation! What if he'd gotten sick?"

"Well since he claimed to be a carnivore primarily after red meat, I thought he'd be fine. And he stopped complaining after their first few bites."

Ford still looked bristled but went back to his reading, muttering something under his breath about being responsible. Finally though after a few more moments Ford finished reading through everything. "This all looks reasonable enough to me. You managed to get a lot of useful information down Stanley. Though I'd wished you'd taken more precautions around a dangerous siren we have limited knowledge of."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"So what now?" Fiddleford asked. "Is the lake gonna be safe or will Marcos become a problem?"

"Well, uhh-"

"Stan?" Ford asked nervously.

"It's actually kinda funny, in a way-

"Stan what did you do?"

"So here's the thing... Since Marcos still really wants red meat. He agreed he wouldn't go after any humans, or their pets, I made sure of that. But... I gotta feed him at least once a day."

Both Fiddleford and Ford groaned at that.

"Don't worry! I promise this won't come outta your guys' budget."

"So you're just gonna chuck raw meat into the lake everyday?!"

"Yeah, I guess. I already let Marcos know to expect mostly ground stuff cause I ain't made of money, and maybe if he's on his best behavior I'll give him steak."

Fiddleford laughed lightly over his ice tea. "Sounds like you've got yourself a pet siren? How long does Marcos expect to get all this food?"

That left Stan a little stumped. "Uh, he never actually said... It's not like he's leaving anytime soon."

"Great!" Ford said, still very much worried about the deal Stanley made. "Now we have even more liabilities to worry about!"

"Relax Sixer! Once you get on Marcos's good side, he's harmless! He's probably as big of a liability as Shifty here."

"Shifty is a highly-sophisticated alien species that could be lethal in the wrong hands!"

"Yet you let him hang around as your little lap-dog."

"Stanley! If anything goes wrong with this, the town will be after all of our heads!"

"And I'll make sure nothing ever does go wrong! Honestly Ford, have a little faith in me!"

Ford pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. "You're right Stan... But please, _please_ take the proper precautions Stanley."

"You know I will! And besides, It's not like Marcos will just go back on his deal."

"How can you be so sure? 

"Trust me, right now Marcos is the type of guy whose stuck at a dead end with no way out. He wouldn't risk ruining our arrangement."


	6. A Fish in the Bowl is Lucky, They're in For a Worser Fate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look at that, finally kept my promise from the last chapter for once! Now if only I can figure out how to keep this pace going.
> 
> (Also, I edited the tags a tidbit since Shifty isn't only mentioned anymore. If events or changes occur that aren't mentioned in the tags then I'll be sure to always edit the tags after the chapters been published.)

Marcos lay at the muddy bottom of the lake, lazily watching the pale moonlight flicker through his tentacles.

Today had been rather interesting. After waking up still on shore he'd found himself in the clutches of some human. Only to be thrown back into the water. Then when he finally got up the courage to go hunt someone, the same human had been there to stop him, and forced him to eat greasy patties instead.

In the span of one day that human had become both a blessing and a thorn in his side. Rescuing him and ruining his plans. His hero and captor. A kind spirit full of mercy but also a tormentor who just made everything worse. And he had resisted his powers. No mortal man's mind, not even the mightiest and wisest of demigods could withstand the allure of his magic!

Stanley Pines was an anomaly to Marcos.

But he was an anomaly that Marcos would have to further humor if he wanted to stay in the lake comfortably alive. How the mighty have fallen. From all that once was to this. Swimming in a filthy, fresh-water lake surrounded by humans. Dependent on a human creature to get food. He took a little bit of relief in the fact that since no one would come looking for him, he had no fear of any of his family seeing him in such a state. In the so called all encompassing sea, no one would ever find him here even if they tried... But at what cost? Here in this tiny pool of a lake he wasn't left with many choices or resources.

The moonlight from high above seemed to mock him with a temptation. He now had another choice. One he never thought of last night or any night before. Despite its meek and mundane appearance this lake was surrounded by magic. He had felt it before, like a static energy prickling his skin, but now he knew exactly what this energy was and all the power it entailed. And now that he was on speaking terms with a human...

He shook his head of the idea with a snarl. Absolutely not! He may be growing desperate, but it'd be a frozen day in Hades before he'd ever stoop to such lows, such misery and pain.

Still though, even while defiantly trying to push the very thought out of his mind, those old horror stories his grandmother once told him rang in his ears. Daring him almost.

_To abandon that which made and molded you? That which gave you life and joy and purpose? It is told that with the right magic it is indeed possible, but it comes at a very, very high and dear price. It is warned that every moment of your waking life will be filled with torture, pain. Your heart will only be left with loneliness and regret to cherish. And your spirit... It would break for such a great and foolish sacrifice... And once cursed you'd never be able to come back._

It was an option. Marcos mused. A terrible option but still one of the few he had left.

For now though he'd rather lie here at the bottom of that lake, look at the moon and maybe try to sleep. Then simply wait and see what his fourth day in this lake would bring. He may have few choices left but they were still his to make.

Even as he finally drifted off, those words still echoed through his mind fitfully.

_With the right magic it's possible... With the right sacrifice... Each waking moment would be torture... Never to return home..._

~~~

Before fully opening his eyes, Marcos first felt a tug at his hair. It pinched slightly at his scalp but Marcos didn't think much of it. Probably just some weird fish or crab mistaking his hair for food.

Then the light tugging became full-on yanking, forcing Marcos's head off the lake floor. He yelped and reached up for his abused hair. His hands scrambled, hurrying to find the source of the tugging. He soon felt over sleek, needle-thin metal and wire. He cried out when the wire he was gripping was suddenly pulled taunt and cut into his hand. There was a fishhook in his hair. His initial panic died down and was replaced with boiling rage. The insolence... How dare they!

Not even worrying about repercussions, Marcos shot up and followed the line back to its human vessel. It wasn't a necessarily large ship but he could tell it was full of humans, he could hear their whoops and cheers from above deck. The fools. Not wanting the line to be pulled any tighter he sped ahead, lept out of the water and climbed up the ship's deck, glaring at the human holding the fishing rod. All the other humans on board were shrieking with fright and the man who had snagged his hair looked at him in utter disbelief.

" _Silence! All of you!_ " Marcos's eyes glowed with a powerful, furious energy. All the humans immediately fell quiet with quivering lips, shaking legs and eyes glowing back in that same vibrant cyan. " _How dare you... How dare you idiots even attempt to use such human contraptions on me. Give. It. Here. Now._ "

Meekly, the man handed Marcos his fishing rod. He snatched it out of the human's hand and glanced around at all the other humans on board. They were all still under his spell.

" _Now, I want all of you to-_ " To what? Crash their boat into the cliff side? Jump overboard? Marcos realized that if anything were to mortally harm these humans, as rude and wretched as they were, Stan would inevitably blame him regardless. " _I want you all to... Neglect to put on any of your, uhhh, sunscreen all day, toss it into the lake in fact! Along with any food you brought with you and... And scrape your ship horribly when you take it to the docks!_ "

When all the humans nodded in unison and began dumping their supplies into the lake Marcos slid of the deck and back into the water, taking the fishing rod with him. There! Now they wouldn't be put in harm, but they would still know misery for what they did. And in all the terrible ways he'd heard humans shouting about the other day at the docks too.

Finally, he was able to calm down and take in his surroundings. In his earlier panic, then fury he didn't see what time it was. Orange sunlight was just beginning to peak out from behind the massive walls of pine trees and the whole sky above the lake was glowing with warm peach and pink colors. It certainly was a nice sight to wake up to, plus it meant those foolish humans would have a long, tiring day to pay for what they did to him.

Speaking of which, now that he'd taken care to those humans, there was still a matter to that blasted hook and line. He felt around and tried to unhook it from his hair, but in all his excitement it seemed to have ended up horribly knotted up in his tremendously thick locks. Grumbling curses towards humans and their horrible contraptions, Marcos set to work untying the hook from his hair.

By the time he finally set his hair free, the sun had risen and now sat high above the lake. He sighed in relief, brushing his hands through now hook-free locks. He hated humans so much! He glared up at the surface above to try and spot that ship and sure enough it still sat out in the middle of the lake, along with many many other ships now.

Among those he spotted Stan's small boat floating around the same area he had the other day. Not wasting any further time, Marcos rose up to the surface and leaned up against Stanley's boat.

"Hey look who finally decided to show up!" Stan said, leaning over the side of the boat to greet him. "I was out here for a while. Began worrying if something happened."

"Nothing that you should worry yourself about Stan. I had a horrible morning!" Marcos replied, taking Stan's hand and letting himself be pulled up into the boat.

Stan laughed at that. "Oh jeeze, was it really that bad or do you just like to whine about everything?"

"Yes actually, it was!" Marcos snapped back. "Here take this stupid thing." He shoved the fishing rod into Stan's hands. "Some dumb humans got it knotted in my hair and I never want to see it ever again."

Stan face immediately fell from its humored and friendly demeanor. "Marcos, Where are those humans now?"

"Where do you think?" He answered back testily.

"Marcos?" Stan warned.

"They're right over there!" He gestured to the alleged ship from this morning. "In that ship. I didn't do anything to put them in bodily harm, I swear."

Stan looked over at the people carefully. "Those ones? And they're all still there?"

"I swear to the gods, I didn't touch a single one! Go over and ask them yourself, they've been here since sunrise."

Stan looked over Marcos carefully, reading his face for any sort of lie. Then he sat back down in the boat and relaxed. "Ok, I'll believe you for now. But you better be more careful next time, cause I don't wanna end up having to try and guess who drowned every day when I get here!"

With that said, Stan tossed Marcos a decently filled bag of what he could only assume was this ground raw meat. It looked more like pink paste then anything truly raw. But at least this time none of the food was cooked or covered in grease.

As he went and ate some of the stuff, Stan fiddled with the fishing pole and began to talk. "I was gonna come out later after they closed the lake for the night. All sneaky or whatever. But my brother said I should just head out now instead. Make sure you didn't get into any trouble while I was gone."

"I see." Marcos answered, eyeing Stan carefully. "I also see that you're wearing that crown of flowers again? Why not different attire? Like those straw hats and ball caps most of the other humans are wearing?"

"Eh, matter of preference. I like how the orange really brings out my eyes." Stan answered easily, lying through his teeth.

"Really? Let me see."

Before Stan could try and retaliate, Marcos had leaned in close staring directly into Stan's eyes. Even without magic clouding them, his eyes were brilliantly blue, like the very spirit of the ocean was in his irises. His gaze was deeply focused, but also as if he were searching for something.

Whatever it was he couldn't see it and soon leaned back after those few brief moments. "Yes, the orange flowers do compliment your eyes very nicely. Reveals more of their warmth."

And while the words were polite, flattering even, Stan noted how there was a disappointment in Marcos's voice.


	7. But Who Cares?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness, It really has been over a month since I updated this story. I'm so sorry for the giant delay! I've had a few other projects taking up my time the past few weeks. (Unfortunately I can't make any promises for faster updates cause I have school coming up next week. It's a shame the summer's nearly over...)

Whatever Stan was, he was definitely human. In all of Marcos's time and experience, no creature could hide who they truly were in their eyes. Not spirits, not demons and certainly not man.

So how had he resisted? No mortal or demigod could withstand his power, or at least they shouldn't. Was Stan given some sort of magical protection by Hermes or Athena? He'd heard of such ancient stories before but never did he think that such gifts would ever be given in the modern world let alone used against him!

His eyes fell back onto the crown of flowers adorning Stan's head. Perhaps they were the gift? A way to keep his mind free form his powers?

If that were the case he'd have to figure something out later, because his window of time was gone. Stan was moving further away from him on the boat benches.

"Uhh thanks, I guess... You got pretty nice eyes too. Especially when you, ya'know, aren't trying to brainwash people and all."

Marcos hummed at that, still focused more on the thought of Stan's flowers and how they were able to disrupt his magic. While in thought he went to rest his hand on the lip of the boat but immediately pulled his hand back with a hiss. His hand felt like it was on fire.

Stan jumped when he hissed, it sounded like some sort of feral animal to him. "You ok?"

When Marcos looked down at his hand he frowned at the sight. An angry, red line of split skin went across the middle of his palm. That wretched fishing line from earlier, he'd forgotten about that.

Without asking, Stan leaned over and took Marcos's hand in his and grimaced at the sight. He made a mental note to tell Ford about how the blood was as red as any human's, though maybe a little more watery in appearance. "Ouch. That happened this morning?"

"Yes. I tried to untie the hook from my hair when those horrible humans decided to pull the line taunt."

"You want me to put anything on it?" When Marcos shot him a confused look, Stanley tried to explain more. "Cause I mean, I'm pretty sure swimming around here with open cuts like that can't be good. They could get infected or something."

Marcos looked at his wounded hand frowning. He hadn't thought about that. Sure the ocean could spread disease from time to time, getting sick was always a possibility back in the ocean. But this lake was much more shallow and tiny in comparison to that, not to mention much more human traffic... Gods, it was amazing Marcos hadn't already gotten sick! He hoped that he could build up some immunity from whatever viruses all the humans were riddled with as he still had no plans on leaving this wading pool of a lake anytime soon.

"Hang on, I'm pretty sure either Sixer or Fidds put a medical kit somewhere on this thing." Stan moved back again and ducked down, looking under all the benches before shouting "Aha, knew it!", and pulling back out a strange white plastic box with a red plus sign on it.

"Hmmmm, I'm not sure if putting on bandages would work. I mean you're always underwater so they'd break down as soon as you went back in the water... I'll put a little ointment on it though, hopefully that will help."

"Do what you must human."

Stan took Marcos's hand back in his and uncapped his water bottle, pouring a generous amount across the cut. "Stanford's always going on about cleaning out a wound before putting any stuff on it. Prevents infection." He answered, easily reading the confusion of Marcos's face.

In return Marcos tried to keep as still as possible. Despite having had much, much worse in the past but the split skin still stung. Whenever he moved his hand or even just his fingers the skin on his palm would move around and the wound kept getting agitated. But for the most part, Marcos kept an apathetic face to show he was above any pain this cut through his hand tried to give him. Even when Stan rubbed soap and later ointment directly onto the cut Marcos aimed to keep his face blank.

Unfortunately for Marcos though, Stan was seasoned in reading people and even his slightest flinches and most silent grunts couldn't go unnoticed by Stan. Though he didn't comment on them either way.

When his hand was finally coated in a thick layer of ointment, Stan finally released his hand and relaxed back into his seat.

"Thanks?" Marcos said, unsure if all this goop on his hand would really do more good than harm.

"No problem. Not like I have anything better to do." Stan replied, leaning back and looking skyward. Taking in as much sunlight as he could for a few moments before the whole lake was covered in shade. As Stan had worked, swarms of clouds had come so now the warm summer sun would sink in and out of sight from behind them.

They sat quietly for a while like that, Stan lying so still one might wonder if he fell asleep if not for his wide, very awake eyes. Marcos quietly ate the last of his meat with his good hand. While licking his hands of the ground beef he kept looking over Stan's crown of flowers. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't sense any magic about it, none of that energy was there. But there was something Marcos couldn't quite place. It wasn't any sort of curse or spell. All he could feel was this sort of wall. Blocking his way, keeping his magic out of Stan's mind.

If they were both in the water, it'd be easy. Just wrap his tentacles around Stan till he couldn't fight back, rip that stupid ring of flowers off his head and see if he could still resist his magic.

He probably wouldn't. Though some of his memory was a blur from when Stanley rescued... Before the human put him back in the lake, he could remember being able to control Stan and keep him away. At least for a short while before his exhaustion kicked in and he found himself helplessly being hoisted up into the human's arms.

And just like then, he was still at a great disadvantage. While massive, fierce and powerful in water his element, on land all his gifts made him vulnerable. His amazing hearing now only brought on overstimulation and migraines. His great plume of tentacles were now a disadvantage, what once gave him great strength now weighed him down. Not to mention how easily he got dehydrated and overheated, roasting away in this summer sun even with the overhead clouds. He hated it so much.

Stanley shot up in surprise as the whole boat rocked dangerously close to tipping over and Marcos dove back into the lake with a large splash. "Hey! Where do you think you're going!" He only caught sight of all his tentacles, trailing after him and falling out of the boat like a green river.

"Marcos?" He called. Stan peered into the water. Searching for any sign of Marcos. But the lake was so clouded and murky. He tried leaning closer, trying to catch any mops of brown hair or fleck of glittering tentacles. Still closer, Stan stretched far over the lip of the boat.

Marcos shot back up colliding with Stan. "Gah!" Stan threw himself back so fast he nearly toppled off the other side of the boat. While he tried to balance himself and his rocking ship Marcos laughed even while a red mark on his forehead bruised slightly.

"You think you're funny, huh fish-face?"

"Yes!" Marcos burst into another bout of laughter as Stan rubbed his own forehead and glared at him. "Oh gods! You should of seen the look on you're face! And then you almost fell off of your ship!"

"No thanks to you!" Stan huffed, "Why the hell did you even do that?!"

"Uhhh, I thought you would of backed away in time but apparently you're reflexes could use some work." As he spoke there was a hint of something sinister in his teasing words. Stan felt himself back up towards the center of the boat while Marcos swam forwards and rested his elbows up on the lip.

"If you plan on keeping this type of crap up, than you better expect nothing but canned brown-meat next time I come by!"

"I'll take my chances." Marcos teased back, letting a few of his tentacles wiggle out of the water and splashing Stan. He kept up an air of nonchalance as the day continued. Stan's reflexes may have been rusty but unfortunately for Marcos his balance was still rather impressive. But he'd find some way to get Stan out of his small ship and get those flowers off his head yet. He'd just have to be a bit more patient and creative.

 


	8. No Big Deal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness gracious, it's been a while! I have a whole soap opera about loosing the internet for like two weeks school picking up its pace but point is I'm back now with a hopefully more stable internet. Along with this I have updates for my other continuing story as well as two one-shots I'll be posting soon. Sorry for that wait though, I did not expect it to take this long!

After a week a pattern became painfully obvious. Around the time when the sun was one-fourth its way across the sky, what Stan had told him on human clocks was considered around ten, people would sworn the lake. Some were there earlier but ten was more or less the point when the water surface became more boat then water. Honestly, there were more and more humans showing up everyday, Marcos began to wonder how there was space enough for them all. After a few hours of sulking along the bottom of the lake, trying to keep out of the human's vision, Stan would show up around noon. Give him his food and the two would talk for a few hours more. But then before the sun could even begin setting Stan would be on his way and Marcos would have the whole lake to himself as long as the night was draped over his lake and the strange town of Gravity Falls.

It was a pattern that easily came to bore Marcos to the point of counting scales or pulling out his hair but also one that Marcos could use to his advantage. If he could persuade Stanley Pines to come to the lake during the night, he could easily overpower the human and tear that wretched ring of flowers off of Stan's head and he'd be his. And not a single soul would ever be the wiser. But he didn't plan on killing Stan, no that would be stupid. At this point he was the only thing keeping him alive in this overcrowded pool of a lake. No, killing him would be disastrous mistake. Plus if Marcos were honest with himself, despite his brashness the human was growing on him some.

When he'd first gotten into this... lone shark way of living, he'd stubbornly thought that he would never need anyone ever again. That he'd be fine being utterly alone with no one to bother him. But he'd forgotten how nice it could feel to simply talk to someone else. It wasn't even like he and Stan talked about anything earth-shattering, it was mostly small talk of the weather, Stan's job, his brother and friend and sometimes the weird out-of-town visitors who would make fools of themselves in the woods and lake. And yet, it became meaningless conversation that Marcos was looking forwards to every afternoon.

So to keep his daily meals and only connection Marcos would have to be careful how he took down the human. All he had to do was persuade the human to come at night. Then he'd get all the answers he needed and use the bulk of his powers to ensure Stan didn't remember being abducted and he could send him off with his stupid flowers none the wiser. Scratch that, Marcos would have to make sure the human was dry more before sending him on his way. Having the human wander back into town sopping wet was just begging for suspicion.

Persuade the human to come at night, lull him into a false sense of security then attack has he use to do, but instead of eating him he'd simply interrogate Stan and before sending him off make sure he's dry and has no way to recall what happened and take the memory out of his mind before leaving. In the end Stan would only remember a peaceful moonless evening talking with Marcos on the empty lake.

He had his plan and the time was right, now all he needed to do was set his plan into action.

Marcos looked up at the wide array of boats bobbing up and down up on the surface, waiting to see the familiar sight of his human's rusty dingy. And just like the pattern predicted he could see Stan's boat pull away from the docks just as the sun began its decent back down from its peak.

Rising quickly off the bottom, Marcos went to follow the boat as it wove through the multitude of other ships. It seemed that today Stan would rather risk his personal safety then deal with the multitude of other humans as his boat was steered far away from the swarm of ships at the center of the lake and towards the empty water near jagged cliff side. Perfect.

Just as Stan cut his boat's engine Marcos's head popped out of the water. "Hello again, my human." He grinned as he pulled himself up the side of the boat and rested his elbows up on the lip. "I see you're wearing those lovely flowers again as usual~"

"Uhhh, yeah! These things are my favorite, I uh, I feel naked if I leave the house without'em." As he spoke Marcos noted how his hand unconsciously went up to the crown, checking to make sure it was still there. Oh Marcos was so looking forwards to ripping those stupid things off his head.

Stan sighed while looking over at the mob of other boats. "So... This place gets awfully crowded in tourist season, huh?"

"Is it?" Marcos asked with faked innocence. "I hardly even noticed."

"Really? Cause two days ago you were talking about mauling the whole lakeside and eating everyone in sight if just one more boat went onto the water." Stan answered back.

"Merely dramatics. It gets awfully boring around here as I'm sure you know." Marcos replied waving a hand before hoisting himself up onto the boat so Stan wasn't looking down upon him so much.

"Yeah, compared to the woods, this place can get real dull. I mean all you can really do is fish and swim and that's pretty much it." Stan was speaking a bit more relaxed now that Marcos was on the boat.

Marcos had learned that when he stayed in the water during their visits it would put Stan more on edge compared to when he sat across from the human and held an open posture. Stan wasn't the only one who prided themselves on reading people after all.

"It does get awfully boring in this overcrowded pool. At least during the day..." Now Marcos had to be careful how he handled this next part, if he was too direct or was too revealing with his motives Stan would immediately catch on that he was being set-up. "Why is it Stanley you only visit me at noon when the lakes crowded so and the sun is its hottest?"

"Kinda just happens I guess. Cause I help out my bro and Fiddleford during the morning with their explorations and sciency-junk. I actually come here during my free-time actually."

"And what about you're evenings?"

Stan shrugged. "I'm trying to get a job at night. Help the nerds pay their bills since they're barely surviving off grant money right now. I'm aiming for this bar on the edge of town, I have a lot bartending experience."

Marcos had no idea what a grant was or what the hell a bartender did but he wasn't about to let Stanley know that. "I see... But perhaps you could visit me in the evenings before you get this job. After all it is much cooler, and there's less humans swarming the lake with all their loudness and dirtiness."

Stan gave him a weird look when he said that. Curses, he overstepped his bounds. Now the human was getting suspicious. He could tell there an unasked question hidden in Stan's tenser tone when answered. "I dunno. Stanford's always going on and on about how the nocturnal life is pretty dangerous in these parts... Monsters and all."

"I know, I know. I was simply offering a better option than this horrible point of day. It's even gotten to you."

"Has not. I'm a people person, always have been." Stan argued back.

"If that's true then tell me human, why are we now closer to those rocks were you first attacked me then the safe waters where all those other humans are that you love being around so much."

Stan frowned as he noticed that that was actually true. "Say I did come after sundown. What would happen then?"

"Well for one it would be much less crowded. I could have more open space to move on at the surface rather then cling to the side of your boat. Maybe you could even be of assistance to your brother, going and observing the nocturnal life as you put it."

"And the monsters?" Stan asked, still not persuaded.

"I've been in this lake for a whole week and I can assure you I am by far the worst monster in all this lake. Surely you'd have nothing else to fear." There was one other creature, a shy meek sea serpent, or technically lake serpent, who'd always speed away whenever Marcos tried to get closer to it. But he wasn't about to give Stanley that information so easily.

"I'm not afraid." Stan said defensively.

Oh this was just perfect, hold the human hostage by his pride! It would definitely be much more fun then simply tricking the human. Though Marcos tried his best to ignore the fact that he had actually failed to trick the human in the first place, being persuasive was much more difficult without the use of his magic.

"You're not afraid of the dark? Or wicked sea monstrous who drown sailors in the dead of night and devour them as they release their final breath?"

Stan scoffed at that. "Of course not, especially not whiney little mermaids who complain about everything and get their hair caught on fish hooks."

Marcos couldn't help glower as Stan now grinned. He thought Stan promised never to bring that up again!

"Then prove it." Marcos hissed and with those three little words he finally ensnared Stanley. His eyes narrowed but sighed in resignation. "Tomorrow, instead of visiting me during the afternoon, come by during the evening. I promise I'll make it worth while."

"Sounds fine by me." Stan said coolly. "I guess I'll see you then."

~~~

The whole next day, Stan kept trying to psych himself up. It was just hanging out with Marcos, the man-eating sea monster who he know's has been plotting something for days now, after the lake was closed, on a the night of a new moon and no one would be around for miles to hear him scream for help. This would be fine, no big deal.

He knew this whole thing was stupid but Stan wouldn't let Marcos whatever-his-last-name-was call him a coward. Stanley Pines has been called many things over the years but he'd never let anyone, especially not bratty ungrateful fish-faces, call him a coward.

That evening, he made up a quick lie to Stanford and Fiddleford so they wouldn't worry about him. They'd probably both have panic attacks if they knew where he was going at night. So he just mentioned something about visiting that bar again to try and talk to the owner about any openings.

Just before leaving he hid his trusty bronze knuckles and a knife into his coat. At night it always got so much colder here and it was probably even colder out right by the water. He pulled up his hood and hid Marcos's bag of raw meat, one he'd tricked the nerds into thinking he'd already given to Marcos, into his jacket. Then taking a deep breath to steel himself, he stepped out the front door of the shack and drove over the the far end of the lake.


	9. I want...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty, sorry this took a little longer then expected to publish. It also ended up being a lot longer than my normal chapters too. But I hope you enjoy regardless, cause the drama begins to pick up a bit here! Or at least me attempting to write drama and action :P
> 
> Also fun fact: If I ever got the courage to write a sex scene for this story, the chapter title would definitely be "Everything's Hotter Under the Water" lol

Stan parked his car in a small break between the trees just before the dirt turned to sand. He frowned at how dark it really was without any headlights, you couldn't even see the lake. With only a few stars to shed light the water had almost no reflection. It looked more like a void.

For probably the billionth time that night he really regretted making this deal. But what else could he do? Nobody calls Stan Pines a coward.

So instead of getting back in his car and driving back to the shack like any person who valued their life, Stan grabbed a flashlight out of his glovebox, stepped out of his car and began the long walk around the lakeside and over to the docks.

He wasn't even a few feet away from his car when he heard it. There was a voice, Marcos's voice carrying on the breeze. He seemed to be wordlessly crooning. He shined his light over the lake to where he thought he heard the voice coming from but he found nothing. When the voice seemed to rise out of a different spot on the lake, that too appeared to be empty as soon as Stan moved the light. He swore he could hear a small chuckle mixed into the constant singing. Marcos was toying with him. Stan kept walking and refused to try spotting him on the lake. He wouldn't want Marcos to get any more satisfaction from his stupid game. Despite the obvious danger and annoyance though, Stan couldn't help but find Marcos's voice beautiful. It was powerful, reverberating across the lake from the woods to the jagged cliffs. Yet all sweet and alluring in a way that made Stan check that the flowers and headband were still on his head. Luckily, they still were.

When he got closer to the docks, his voice finally became much more clearer. At some points he was just crooning, but at other points Stan realized he had been singing words. For the first time since Stan saw Marcos beached, he was using that weird dialect of Spanish as he sang, and it still felt uncomfortably unfamiliar to Stan. As he translated some of the words in his head, that eerie feeling refused to leave. It prickled at his skin.

"... _-my love~ Come back to me my love. And I'll drag you down in the depths of the sea. Far from the shore, far from the skies. Where it's dark, and still as night~_ "

Stan wanted to groan as he got closer, he could make out a figure sitting at the end of the dock, right next to where he'd left his boat tied for the night. Of course, Marcos was going to put himself right there. Where it would be so easy to mess with him if he turned his back. Or in a worser case scenario, he might just grab him with all those dumb tentacles and drag him into the lake.

He tried to slip his bronze knuckles on as inconspicuously as he could. But he knew that two fists, even world-class fighting fists could only get him so far against that gazillion-armed horror. As he switched his light from hand to hand he got an idea that could at least throw Marcos off of his game. But it was a little mean-spirited, maybe instead he could-

" _-I'll grab you by your stupid, dirty mullet and drag you back down~_ "

Screw it. Not worrying about greater consequences he went with his first plan of action and cranked the flashlight as high as it could go and shined it right at Marcos's face.

The singing immediately stopped and was replaced with an indignant squawk and Marcos tumbled off the dock and into the water.

Stan put on his biggest, gut-grabbing, more fake than real laugh he could while Marcos climbed back onto the dock, furiously rubbing at his eyes and muttering curses under his breath in a multitude of languages Stan did and didn't recognize.

"What in Poseidon's name is your problem, human!" He groaned in English, still kneading at his eyes and forehead.

"Couldn't resist! Also it's really calling the kettle black if you think my hair's dirty. Mr. Living-at-the-bottom-of-a-lake-and-has-never-used-a-comb-in-his-life!" Stan said still laughing some, taking a confident stride across the dock and towards Marcos.

Marcos huffed at that, Stan could see his nostrils flare out even from the far end of the docks. He had no doubt he might regret pissing off the man-eating sea monster that suspiciously wanted him to come here at night but for now Stan let himself laugh at Marcos's pain.

"Wait you could understand my- Ugh, never mind! I hope you enjoyed your stupid joke! It may end up costing you your life, you wretched human!"

"Eh, I say you shouldn't of expected less from the likes of me! No point in playing a game you know you can't win." Stan shrugged nearing the end of the dock and leaning up against a pillar. Making sure he was just outside of arm and tentacle-reach of him. "Also I've known Spanish for a few years now. When I was... Well, let's just say I was taking a long-term trip out of the country. Kinda had to learn by necessity, you know? Did I really hurt you that bad?"

Marcos tore his hands away from his eyes to pointedly glare at Stan. His eyes glowing vibrantly cerulean in rage. "Yes! How dare you use such barbaric human devices on me! Gods! You could of blinded me!"

"Aw that's too bad... Quick! Let's check your sight, think fast!" Stan tossed the plastic bag of meat at Marcos who caught it, albeit frazzled and panicked before he recognized what it was. "See? Your sight can't be that bad."

"You try my patience any more, it will thin down to a single thread and not even your poor promises of canned brown meat will be able to save you! It's not even that good, probably the poorest quality I've ever seen in my life..."

As he spoke, his words died down to mumbles as he pulled apart the bag and began eating. He hated to admit it but waiting for Stan to come at night had left him famished thought the day. Much more then he had been anticipating. It seemed he'd grown accustomed to eating raw red meat everyday, something he use to get only once a month if he was lucky and crafty enough.

While he ate Stan went quiet. The flashlight sat at his side pointing back towards the docks leaving Marcos, the Lake and anything beyond that dark. After a few moments he was surprised to find his eyes were actually able to adjust. Maybe not to the impressive degree Marcos's could but he began to see Marcos's silhouette and outline of the cliffs near the far end of the lake. But it was still quiet, much too quiet, and Stan couldn't stand it any longer.

"So..."

"So what, Stan?"

"Uhhh, I don't know. Can't think of much to say."

"Then maybe you shouldn't say anything."

"Maybe..."

For a moment Marcos thought that would be the end of that, but then Stan kept talking. Gods, did the human ever shut up?

"It gets pretty quiet out here at night huh?"

Marcos sighed and set down his nearly empty bag. Might as well humor the human, try and lull him into that false sense of security they usually had during the day. "Indeed. Usually I'm the only one awake here at this hour..."

As the words were leaving his mouth there was a tremor, rippling through the water and earth. Stanley barely noticed it but it was enough to prickle his skin. Acting on instinct, Marcos pulled his tentacles fully out of the water. That had never happened in the lake before. It couldn't of been the lake serpent, he was much to small to ever cause something of that much force. Far away he could see four colossal bubbles, maybe larger than his head rise from the bottom of the lake and burst at the surface.

Stan turned towards Marcos a mix of suspicion and some sort of humor clashing in his voice. "Huh, I thought you said you were the only monster..."

"I- I am. I have no idea what that was. I swear Stanley Pines."

"Marcos?"

"I swear."

Stan could see the fear loud and clear on Marcos's face and began to worry. Even when Stan was trying to pick Marcos up when they first met he'd never seen him this spooked. What sort of thing scares the already scary monster?

Part of him screamed, it just wailed out on one side of his mind, to get out now. Get out and visit Marcos in the morning, check if he was still there...

Yet there was still another part of him, the part that made the dumb deal with Marcos in the first place and agreed to the stupid bet to come out here at night. It dared him to take the boat out and find out what could cause such a tremor. Only the volume of an eager whisper compared to the blaring sirens on the other side of his mind. But still persistent, even as he stood back up on the dock.

"Wanna check it out?"

He never did have a great amount of self-preservation.

Marcos's started dumbfounded up at him. "What? Are you insane?!"

Stan walked over to his boat, untethering it and hopping in. Marcos was still too shell-shocked to even try messing with Stan as his back was turned. Some sort of twisted luck, Stan assumed.

"Well you have no idea what it is, I have no idea what it is, let's go figure it out."

"No way! You're insane Stan Pines!"

"Also, I can leave but you're still stuck in here with it no matter what. And you can't stay out here on the docks, you know you'll dry up or someone might spot you."

Marcos sighed. Stan was correct, to a certain degree at least. While his instincts were begging him to swim away and hide there was nowhere else to swim to. Whatever it was he was trapped here with it. Just thinking about it made his stomach ache and the stingers in his tentacles prickle like the skin on his arms and back.

Somehow despite everything though, he found himself sitting across from Stanley and they jetted out onto the lake, near a small island where the bubbles had broken the surface of the water. When Stan cut the engine another tremor hit, making the boat shudder under the force.

"Come on, where are you? ...You know, it might be nothing. Stanford said that there's a whole bunch of cracks deep underground that can release hot gas and lava, maybe one of those cracks are in the lake or something." Stan mumbled, scanning over the water with his flashlight.

Before Stan's light could. Marcos could both see and feel more bubbles rise up out of the water. They were the size of beach balls and surrounded by a fountain of smaller ones. They came up right along the side of the boat, bucking into the side of it and rocking the whole thing dangerously close to flipping. The sound of bursting bubbles fizzing was almost deafening and Stan and Marcos worked together to keep the boat up right. And when they burst, a horrible smell was released making Stan and Marcos want to gag. It smelled like something that spent decades slowly rotting.

Marcos looked down into the water, unable to describe the sensation and emotions pooling into his stomach. He knew with every fiber of his being that this couldn't be a crack in the earth like Stan wished. No, this was something much more sinister. Older then the Gods. He couldn't help but think of the stories he'd heard time and time again as a child. Generations before him, the finest children of Poseidon from all across the land and sea all charging deep into the abyss. To fight creatures much worse than monsters. Much older, and much more sinister...

Looking down into the much shallower water of the lake, that feeling refused to leave him. Itching at his whole body and heart, daring him to do something.

"Marcos?"

He didn't realize it but his eyes were alight with magic. The cerulean glow shined brightly, painfully to Stan on such a dark night and seemed to come out of his skin too, all the way down to his tentacles. Stan had been slowly inching away from Marcos as far as he could on his small boat.

And before Stan could stop him, and before Marcos could stop himself he dove into the water. He followed the path of another burst of rising bubbles down into the murky depths of the lake. That sudden bought of courage began fading a little. But he still pressed on. He couldn't spend the rest of his life hiding on docks every night, and never knowing whose lake he'd stumbled into.

He was nearing the bottom of the lake and still no creature was in sight. Where the hell was it? The bubbles couldn't of just formed from the earth!

However that's exactly what the bubbles did. Pushing right up from the ground. Where it sloped and turned into the island. And the bubbles flew right into his face with enough force to push him away. The whole island shook, the very source of the tremors as well as the bubbles. And whatever courage left within Marcos died completely when he saw the island rise up from the lake floor, breaking away from the natural, real earth. And two colossal eyes opened, glowing yellow and staring directly at him.


	10. Moooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrre~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty in this chapter Marcos swims very quickly! 
> 
> Thanks again to all the kind folks leaving comments and kudos, it really makes my day and certainly makes me feel better about this story as well as how I'm trying to write it out. Sorry though that this and the last chapter suddenly spiked in word count. Also sorry for any spelling and grammar mistakes I may have missed :P
> 
> And I feel like I should mention it again, I mentioned it when I first started writing this story, and that is that Marcos is an OC by Cirilee on tumblr. To check out all their awesome art of him plus a bunch of folks great fanart too here's a link to their tagged stuff on their blog! http://cirilee.tumblr.com/tagged/foxy-merman-au

Marcos swam. His heart pounded through his chest and ears. His whole body trembled as he raced back up to the surface. If he could just make it back up to the surface. If he could just get back to Stan. Get to the surface. Get Stan. And get away from here as fast as they could.

Desperately while sprinting for his life he tried not to think. Not to think about the unearthly roaring all around him, prickling at his skin and making his very core squeeze in on itself. Not to think about the colossal bubbles and how they're were rising faster than him... He wasn't fast enough. Not to think about the current pulling all around him, towards that... that thing.

There was a shrieking noise surrounding him. But he didn't think he was still screaming, that would waste valuable energy he needed for swimming. But when he grew more conscious of himself again, and spared only a few moments to look at himself, he realized that his whole plume of tentacles was glowing fiercely as they pumped through the water. He was use to seeing his jellyfish half always move so fluidly with such grace, the way they twitched about now made them seem more like a erratic machine, not a real part of himself. And their glow... Marcos hadn't seen that sort of power in himself in a long time. Not since he was an apprentice in training, nearly a lifetime ago...

Another shattering roar ripped through the water like seismic waves and with more their force than his own, Marcos broke free from the water's surface. Just to see Stan struggling to keep his boat from capsizing.

"Marcos!" Stan shouted, grateful to see that Marcos came back. "Marcos, what the hell is going on?!?"

Marcos wrapped himself all around the boat, trying not to see how the small island nearby grew taller and taller. And he had to scream over the deafening roar as the thing's face broke free of the water's surface. "STAN! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Not even wanting an explanation Stan revved up the engine on his boat and sped away. But his eyes weren't on the shore but on the rising island that lifted itself high above the lake. It was a head. A giant floating head. And Stan felt vomit rise up the back of his throat when he realized all the tiny white specks knotted up along the bottom of the island were bones... human skulls

Marcos saw how the man's face was paled to the point of sickliness and his eyes were bugged with terror. Unable to look away from the thing towering above them, though Marcos highly doubted he look any better at the moment. But if he kept looking back at that monster he'd surely crash.

"STAN!" Marcos shouted, sending a sharp splash of water up towards Stan's face, with enough force it actually turned his head like he'd been slapped. "STANLEY STOP LOOKING AT IT!"

Finally Stan tore his gaze away, and Marcos would of sighed in relief if at the exact same moment his heart hadn't stopped beating. The thing. The head opened it's giant mouth, filled with teeth taller than a man, and it began to speak.

 **_"_ ** _**.SETAF DETRAEHLOOF RUOY LAES UOY REHTRUF EHT ,MAOR UOY REHTRUF EHT DMA .YRAUTCNAS DNIF REVEN LLIW UOY ,EMOH RUOY MORF EELF UOY RAF WOH RETTAM ON** _ **_"_ **

"STANLEY!" Marcos couldn't care that he was probably shrieking again and arched his head to look up at Stan. He was as numbingly terrified as him. But at least now he was refusing to look at the thing too. Now, he was focused in the edge of the lake closest to them, a tiny beach on the edge of the woods. Despite the constant current pulling them back they were getting closer to the shore, if they could just make it out of the water...

That hope was dashed when Marcos heard the boat's engine suddenly pop and sputtered. It died. Stan started drifting back towards the head and Marcos discovered a new pit of his stomach even lower than the last his heart had dropped to.

"NO! STANLEY!"

Marcos kept up onto the boat to see Stan hurrying to revive his boats small engine. "SHIT! NO NO NO! DON'T DO THIS TO ME! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!" There were tears forming at the corners of his eyes and his breathing grew ragged.

"STANLEY! WE HAVE TO-"

Marcos's words died in his throat when a shadow, even darker then the night circled them.

 **_"?UOY MORF EFIL YREV EHT ERUTROT DNA YTINAS RUOY TRAPA RAET OT ?DLUOS RUOY RUOVED OT EVOL DLUOW SNOMED DNA SRETSNOM REHTO YNAM WOH TSUJ EZILAER NEVE UOY OD_ ** _**"** _

"Stanley? Hold your breath and hold on!"

Marcos yanked Stan harshly off his boat. And not wasting a second more Marcos held Stan tightly to his chest and raced back out from under the shadow. He could feel Stan's arms wrapped around him and his head press down onto his shoulders. High above they could feel something colossal crash back into the water.

Sudden currents of water swept up behind them and forced them even quicker along. Marcos was grateful that they even got to feel such disorienting waves rather then the alternative still a matter of feet behind them.

His tentacles were no longer alight with magic and power like before but they were still twitching with powerful speeds, sending them forwards in giant spurts that were beginning to make Marcos's whole body ache. But they couldn't stop now. Marcos had made a full 180 turn in the water and they were now heading for the cliff sides. While being jagged and a complete danger to any human in a boat Marcos knew that the cliffs were littered with porous openings, most of which couldn't be entered from above water, some big enough to house the lake serpent and others only the size of pockets. If they could just make it to one of those tunnels then they might be able to wait out the head until morning when it would hopefully return to being an island. Hopefully.

They had bought some time when the head dropped the first time. But who knew if they would be so lucky as to avoid the second drop Marcos knew would be coming.

**_".DNEHERPMOC NEVE T'NAC SLATROM UOY SYAW YNAM OS NI .SLOOF HTOB ERA UOY TUB REVELC ER'UOY KNIHT YAM UOY"_ **

All at once the water that had once propelled them forwards now started pulling back as the head began rising up out of the water. Preparing to lift up into the sky and strike them once again. Crush them to death, and slowly under the island they too would rot until they were nothing more than skulls and bones. Just two more victims to add to that thing's collection...

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he felt Stan slightly loosen his death grip on Marcos to pound at his shoulder. Or at least as close as he could get to hitting Marcos in the water. Stan was growing redder in the face and made a muffled groaning sounds.

"Hold on Stanley. Try not to move so much."

Stan needed air. But they didn't have time. They needed to get to the cliff side right now if they didn't was to end up corpses stuck underneath an island.

**_".ROF EPOH REVE DLUOC UOY FO REHTIE LUFICREM TSOM EHT FO ENO SI YM HTIW EFIL A ,UOY SIMORP I TUB ETAF RUOY THGIF UOY"_ **

The water grew unnervingly still and Marcos knew the island was no doubt back out of the water now. And flying directly towards them.

Marcos rapidly scanned the cliff side, looking for any caves deeper then a shallow ditch. Oh gods, what if there weren't any caves around this area?

Just as his thoughts traitorously went back to the image of Stan and himself as corpses he spotted a tunnel. One that Marcos remembered led deep into the cliff side and was littered with air pockets.

"Hang on love, were almost there!"

They're were almost there. Marcos began adamantly playing the phrase through his mind. Just keep going you're almost there. A shadow began looming again above them. Just keep going, you're so close, you can do this. Around them a few rocks, and undoubtably bones fell off the head and into the water, sinking down into its murky depths. Don't stop now, you're almost there.

**_".TFEL EVAH OWT UOY YNITSED DOOG YLNO EHT .YNITSED RUOY ECARBME .YTINRETE ROF UOY WOLLAWS LLIW I .NAMUH RUOY DNA UOY ,HTUOM YM OTNI BMILC"_ **

You're almost there just keep going! Don't stop! Dear gods don't you dare stop! Go go go go go!

The voice from high above seemed to roar all around them, surrounding them, growing louder as the head shot down, striking the water.

 _**"** _ **_.REBMULS YM MORF EM EKAWA DMA EREH EMOC OT RAF DELEVART EVAH UOY ,AES EHT FO SHTPED EHT MORF HCTIW DNOBAGAV_ ** _**"** _

An undertow of water surged forth just as Marcos and Stan passed through the cave threshold. It sent them careening through the path and harshly scraped them against its side. It hurt, but gods they'd made it. They were still alive...

"MMMH!"

Stan clawed, digging deeply at Marcos's arms still firmly holding him. Gods, he'd nearly forgotten Stan needed air! He was now violet in the face, nearly blue. He was about to suffocate if he didn't get him to the first pocket. But it was still so far away.

A quick idea came to Marcos and he lifted Stan up closer to his face using his tentacles. With one hand pinching his nose and the other to cup his face Marcos pulled Stan closer and steered his mouth onto to his. Then creating an airtight ring with his lips he kissed Stan and forced air back into his lungs.

At first Stan's breaths were ragged and unbalanced, still panicked from the monster and so desperate for air. Marcos tried to be soothing, his breath remained deep and steady, tentacles wrapped fully around Stan in what could be almost be a comforting hug. As Marcos continued breathing for him, Stan's breathing eventually calmed and he regained his composer. After a while he even began to relax into Marcos's hold. Marcos pulled away some to let Stan release his breath on his own.

"That's it love. We're still alive." As he spoke it seemed to be both for Stan and himself.

They continued on like that. As soon as Stan finished steadily releasing the air, Marcos came back forwards kissing him again. Even after Stan had calmed back down enough to hold his breath once more. Marcos pressed his lips harsher onto Stan's, one of his hands came up and tangled itself in Stanley's locks. And Marcos had to admit to himself that this was now more of a kiss then simply trying to help Stan breath. Marcos couldn't pinpoint an exact motive for himself at the moment, choosing to belief his actions at the moment were simply instinctual. By some miracle they were both still alive and safe. And though Marcos had seldom commented on it, Stanley had always been a handsome creature, for a human at least. So kissing Stanley Pines was by no means a pain or a struggle or even an inconvenience really. And it didn't seem like Stan was one to begin complaining either. Seeing how both of his arms were wrapped snugly around Marcos and roaming over his shoulders and spine till they rested on the small of his back.

It all came to a terrible stop though when Marcos's fingers brushed clean through Stanley's locks. From the scalp of his head to the tips of his mullet. His crown of flowers was gone, they must of fallen off while they had been racing around the lake in escape of the island head monster. Stanley realized this to and suddenly tensed in Marcos's arms. Warm lips forced themselves away from Marcos and Stan looked at him with great fear and distrust. Prepared to fight him.

But instead Marcos surprised him. His hold remained snugly around his legs, but he pulled both of them up through the tunnel until Stan felt the water slip off of his face and he realized his head was out of the water. Marcos had pulled them up into a small air pocket.

"Woah!" Stan shouted gasping for air on his own, and nearly knocking into the roof of the tunnel. "For a moment back there I really thought you were gonna hypnotize me or something."

Marcos ignored his comment, looking down into the inky black water as if he could actually see their path. Though for all Stan knew he actually might have. "Let's keep going. After three more pockets there should be a cave with some space out of the water where you can rest."

Marcos went to dive back down before Stan stopped him grabbing his arm. "Wait! How do you know what the rest of the tunnel looks like?"

"I'll have you know that not all of my life revolves around lazing about the bottom of the lake waiting desperately every day for you to come back, Stanley." Marcos snapped back testily.

Actually about 80% of his life did, though he'd never tell Stanely that. He'd begun exploring these caves only a few days ago out of sheer boredom and had only scoped out two or three caves now.

Stanley raised his hands in mock surrender before laying them to rest back on Marcos's shoulder. "Ok, ok sheesh! I just wanted to be sure you knew what you were doing. I mean, it wasn't like it was horrible but I'd rather not spend the rest of the night with your tongue stuck down my throat so I can breath."

"Fair enough. Though I'm not sure why you're complaining. You certainly weren't while I was saving your life. Dare I say it, but I think you were actually enjoying yourself!"

Before Stanley could retort, Marcos plunged them underwater and they continued swimming though the absolute darkness of the tunnel. At the second pocket Stan asked Marcos if he could try lighting up their path with his tentacles like earlier, also if he could let his legs free from the giant plume. The first request Marcos happily fulfilled, and the whole tunnel was alight with the almost alien-like blue glow from Marcos. But he quickly brushed off the second request, saying humans swam too slowly and he would get left behind.

After two more pockets, they finally made it to the much larger cave opening. Built almost like a pool the tunnel opened up into a comfortable sized room. And sure enough, along one side of the tunnel were steps leading out of the water and up into who-knows-where in guts of the cliff.

"And here we are." Marcos announced sighing. "In the morning we can go back and hopefully that monster will be gone, but for the rest of the night we can stay here."

Stan gave a low whistled as he looked about the cave. He turned and paddled towards the steps. Marcos's tentacles let him move some though they still clung loosely to his waist. "I'm starting to think this thing's man-made. Or maybe monster-made? Either way it's way too smooth to be natural. And now we got step like this thing leads down to a jacuzzi. Where do yah think that way leads Marcos?... Marcos?"

Stan's curiosity came to an abrupt halt when he heard Marcos behind him. But he didn't answer him. He didn't even speak. He was singing.

Stan made a break for the steps but the plume of tentacles that had been so lack around him suddenly tightened, pinning his arms and legs and pulled him back. No matter how much he struggled against the tentacles they refused to let him budge. He screamed as loud as he could in a desperate attempt to drown out the siren's singing. Hands pushed his head down under water and pulled him back up, sputtering and coughing up a lungful of water.

" _How does it feel? Now you're the one trapped at my side, bobbing helplessly in the water~_ " Marcos sang in mockery, hands combing through his hair. Apparently he'd never let their first meeting go Stan realized. "And now without your stupid, hideous crown of flowers, you will answer all of my questions. _Every single one!_ "

"No! Marcos please! You can't do this!" Stan growled out with the last of his energy. Despite his own stubbornness, he could feel Marcos's words echo though his head, making him feel drowsy yet blissfully happy.

When Marcos turned him around to look deeply into his glowing eyes, Stanley knew he was in deep trouble but at the same time he couldn't really bring himself to care. What was he so worried about before? He was with Marcos. He'd never hurt him. And he was so beautiful, Stan couldn't bear to tear his eyes away from Marcos's. Such an amazing, wonderful, perfect creature. Yet of all the people in the world here he was with him, plain old Stanley Pines.

One tentacle came up under Stan's chin and tickled him. Stan gave an adorable little chuckle, trying to curl away. Though his eyes still remained brightly cerulean even when he did managed to turn his gaze temporarily away from Marcos. It was probably just an instinctual movement, or perhaps some useless, last-ditch effort from his subconscious. No matter what though he didn't have a prayer of freeing himself now. Marcos could hold entire ships of people under his control and now all of his focus was solely on Stan.

" _You have my word Stanley Pines. I will not kill you._ " Marcos cooed, words following the melody he kept crooning over and over again. He let out a pleased hum as Stan's body stopped fighting and relaxed into his hold. His eyes glowed, reflecting the bright cerulean in his own eyes, together illuminating their cave. Just as Marcos had suspected Stanley Pines was completely human. And without that ring of flowers was as controllable as a child's plaything under his power. It was just too easy, it made Marcos want to laugh.

" _I simply need answers. And you can provide them for me, can't you my love?~_ "


	11. They Weren't Kidding When They Called Me, Well, a Witch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness gracious I haven't touched this story since last year! Joking aside sorry for this being so long in between chapters. I'd thought I would have so much free time this holiday break but apparently not. But I have t abandoned this story yet! I really hope to follow this all the way to its end, wherever that may be! 
> 
> Anyways until then I hope you enjoy this newest chapter! It's a rather dialogue-heavy one! And sorry for any grammar, spelling and typos I may have missed.

Marcos couldn't help but laugh. The sound reverberated through the small space and echoed down into the water. Finally, after all this waiting and waiting, he finally had Stanley Pines under his control.

And it felt deliciously wonderful to be using his powers to their full potential once again. Not just picking off quick meals or intimidating rowdy fishermen. Not just trying to survive. For once he felt like he could enjoy himself during this interrogation. Exerting his powers for his own sake, able to thrill at the complete control he now held.

And Stan certainly made the long wait even sweeter.

It felt like forever ago that he'd been captured by the human though it had only been a week or so. When he first was captured he wanted nothing more then to wipe that smug triumphant grin off his face and drag him down into the depths of this lake. And now he could. He could do anything he wanted with the human!

Well almost. He couldn't kill him. He needed Stan still, after all. Alive and able to keep Marcos alive too here in this lake. But besides that anything now was fair game.

Not to mention that Stan was revealing himself to be an adorable victim to his hypnosis. It is widely believed that when one's mind was held under another's control that they become cold, stoic robots awaiting command. But as Marcos had learned over the years, this idea was only true for an amateur. After ages of training, with mentors and later on his own, Marcos had mastered the art of hypnosis. To the point where when he had enough energy and will, he could simultaneously relax and firmly hold control over his victims. Having only enough power over themselves to be completely obedient but also honest. In their actions, words, feelings. Even the very manner of how they spoke was sincere and unfiltered.

And Stan was the kind that Marcos enjoyed the most, the kind ones. Not overly romantic like others, and yet so genuinely happy to be with him. To Marcos at least, they actually seemed to have fun, being playful and sweet. Like they were just happy to be included. Maybe a little bit clingy but that just made it easier to ensure that they'd never try to run away.

It was just perfect. An isolated location that ensured no one could dare disturb or spy, he would soon have all the answers he wanted. It was nearly perfect. It couldn't of been any better if Marcos tried.

Actually having this happen without an ancient floating head outside waiting to eat them would of been nice but Marcos was far too pleased with himself to try complaining much. All roads lead to Rome eventually, after all.

Marcos wanted to spend longer toying with the human, savor in this compleat control, but the curiosity that had been haunting him for days demanded he hurry up.

One of his tentacles still rested along Stanley's neck and it drew back up to his chin. Forcing him to look again deeply into his still-glowing eyes.

" _Stanley?_ "

The dopey smile that stretched across Stan's face was enough to make Marcos laugh again. Oh gods, this was too easy! Stanley was adoring this sort of attention, eating it right up like a man starving.

Marcos layered sweetness upon sweetness in his voice with only a tiny hint of a threat. "Stanley? Love, you would never lie to me. _Would you?_ "

"Never!" Stan said with a reverence that made Marcos want to coo at him and pinch his cheeks. Honestly, Stanley was just too much!

He rubbed his head in approval, watching Stan nuzzle into it before continuing. "Beautiful. Then let's begin, who gave you that crown of flowers? Was it Athena? Hermes?"

"Fiddleford."

He'd never heard of a God or Demigod with such a name. "Where does his allegiance lie? Is he of Olympus? The Underworld?"

"Uh, I think he mentioned being Christian?"

Marco's brows knitted. "So he's human? Then how did he come to forge such a magical device?"

"No magic," Stan said smiling, "just plain old science. He always get his panties in a twist when me and Ford blame everything on just magic. Says magic is just science we abuse without understanding. And it wasn't even the flower crown, those were just to hide the metal band he made that was canceling out your powers. Pretty neat huh?"

Marcos felt like he was at a loss. All his years of training, striving to perfect his magic and power. All to be completely defeated by a mundane human with a few scraps of metal? The thought itself seemed so ridiculous, almost mutinous. "It couldn't be, it would be impossible for a human, a magicless human to subdue me."

"Well he did use science-"

"And what of you and your brother? Is he a mundane, powerless human like you too?"

"Ouch, you just like finding the worst ways to describe things, don't you?"

" _Answer me, Stanley._ " Marcos pressed, his hold on Stanly had been growing lax, both mind and body as he processed what he had said about Fiddleford and now began to retake that control.

"Yep, he kinda follows Fiddleford's way of thinking too, he'd rather understand the science behind magic than blindly use magic and spells. But of the two he's more willing to go out and see what magic can do. It's the main reason why he moved out here to the middle of nowhere, to discover weird anomalies and figure out what makes them tick and all that sorta stuff."

"Ah, so this is what you do as well? Why you asked me so many questions when we first met for your little journals?" Marcos said grinning. No wonder the human had been so curious about him.

"Nope, I was just keeping that for my bro. To be honest, all the magic-science mumbo-jumbo was never my strong suit. I only came out here at first cause I really needed a place to stay."

Then truly, Marcos, mighty and mystifying siren of the high seas, bane to all sailors, had been subdued by three humans. And not only that but of the three the humans, the one who did all the work didn't even know what he was meddling with nor cared!

Marcos had to physically un-bristle himself and relax again before he continued. He was the one who wanted answers no matter how much they bruised his ego, he reminded himself. And he still had several questions he wanted answered tonight.

"... Very well, I'll leave that subject be for now. So you say you came here to this... This town?"

"Gravity Falls."

"Yes Gravity Falls, you say your brother came here for discovery, but not you?"

"Nope, didn't even know anything about it before I came in. I thought my brother had gone nuts, till I saw my first gnome." Stan answered.

"So you have no fascination for what you humans call paranormal?" He teased, tentacles going back towards Stan's shoulders and neck though this time he flinched instead of giggling. "You have no desire to preserve or reveal to the human world that their fantasy's are _real?~_ "

"You mean like set up a tourist trap or something?"

"What in hades kind of trap- No! No, I mean do you have any personal focus on monsters like your so-called brother seems to?"

"Nope, besides punching'em in the face when they should cut their scary shit out." Stan said sounding all too pleased with himself.

Marcos frowned for a second before focusing back souly on Stan, if he wanted to be such a stubborn clam then so be it, Marcos would crack him eventually. He made his voice drip with fake sweetness. "Then tell me please human, why bother keeping me alive."

"Cause... it's the right thing to do?" Stan answered as if he were blindly guessing.

"Oh there must be more to it then that, _think a bit harder, love~_ " Marcos combed his hands through Stan's hair as he spoke in a sweet voice. "Even the first time we met, you surely could see I was a dangerous creature, I even harmed you, yet you saved my life. Why bother? Why not just kill me and save your little town from its monster in the lake? In our little arrangement I at least get meat, but all you get is half-baked answers to tote to your brother. Nothing else comes to your benefit?"

Stan tried to look away shyly but Marcos grip on his head was firm. "I... I get to see you, I guess."

"Of course, you get a lovely monster who can never leave. But there must be more to it right?" Marcos said, a tenseness growing in his voice that made whatever free-will was still in Stan's mind fear for his safety. "Do you simply enjoy watching me suffer? Does seeing me miserable in this pool somehow manage to make you feel better about your life?"

"No, it's not like that."

"That no matter how terrible your day was, at least you aren't that foolish siren Marcos?"

Stan snorted, and willingly held Marcos's gaze for once. "If you honestly think my bad days are worse than yours then you really don't know me at all, fish-face."

"I was forced to leave my home!" Marcos said, beginning to loose his cool and control.

"So was I." Stan said back.

"I was betrayed by my own family!"

"So was I."

"I-I was chased out of every place I tried to fit in! I wasted so many of my years migrating aimlessly!

"And guess what? So was I. This is fun, let's keep going. It's like fifty questions but more depressing." Stan replied. Despite still being under Marcos's hold, he could tell the human was enjoying crawling under his skin.

"Enough of this! You still haven't answered me human! Why do you bother wasting your time keeping me alive?"

"I already told you, cause like getting to see you everyday."

"That doesn't answer my question." Marcos growled.

"Sure it does! I mean at first I was just trying to keep you from causing trouble but lately I've really liked being around you. I wouldn't waste so much my time talking to someone every fricken day of the week if I didn't want anything to do with them."

Marcos took a moment to really let Stan's words sink in. He honestly was keeping him alive, simply because he enjoyed talking to him?

Stan rested his head down in the crook of Marcos's neck and continued. "I'd even consider you a friend. I don't have many of those... Never had actually. And I think I might really like you, man."

Marcos laughed, trying to keep his voice light and airy, all while Stan's words formed a heaviness in his insides. "Oh! You _think_ do you?" He teased.

Stan laughed a little in turn but made no effort to lift his head off of Marcos's shoulder. "Kinda funny right? I mean, I know I have really bad judgement. Hell, for a lot of things, and especially for romantic crap. But this is really pushing it huh? I can't help it though. Like I said, besides my brother and his boyfriend, you're the only other person I even talk to on a daily basis. And... And I really like hanging out with you every day. You might be a pain in the ass but at least you're fun! And you're really pretty."

Marcos was taken back by that. He brought one hand up to rest on Stan's head while his rambling words sank in. He might... It sounded like he actually had a crush on him.

Stan continued, sounding less sure of himself. "I know it's stupid... Cause a guy like you would probably never go for a guy like me. And I'm not just talking about you being a man-eating sea monster. Just look at you, you're beautiful!"

Beautiful? It was a complement given to him in his younger years by many who were after his heart and hand. But no one had called him that in a rather long time, not after his colossal, disgusting scar from those fishers so many years ago. But now, and from a human no less? Despite all the circumstance he felt flattered. He lifted Stan's head from his shoulder and while one tentacle propped up his chin the rest hugged him snugly.

When he spoke again he'd meant to sound sterner, more in control, but instead there was an excitement sounding traitorously more natural then his false flirting voice ever had.

" _How so, Stanley?_ "


	12. Go On and Kiss the Boy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow... Just wow... Over half a year... I honestly didn't think I'd be gone this long, i kinda kept putting this story off and before I knew it it was September! Sorry about that. But I finally have another chapter for this thing. Hope it doesn't disappoint too much!
> 
> (And I know it feels like I say this every couple chapters lol but hopefully I think I'll be posting a bit more regularly!)

Marcos waited for Stanley to speak. He seemed unsure at first, struggling a little in Marcos’s hold and trying to look away. Maybe Marcos had gotten a little too overwhelmed. His powers required a disciplined control over magic and will. But before Marcos could command him again with more force Stanly finally responded.

“Well- Just-… Have you seriously never looked in a mirror? Well, maybe you haven’t. I mean you live underwater and all. Do you guys even have mirrors? And you can’t just look at the surface and see your reflection cause it only works one way. Maybe. I have no idea…” Stan said.

Words were just tumbling out of the human. But none that actually answered him. Marcos decided to layer on a little stronger magic. He wasn’t even sure why he wanted this so badly all of a sudden. But now that Stanly brought it up he just had to know.

“ _How so, love?_ ” He said again sweetly. Eyes glowing brighter, reeling Stanly deeper to him. “ _You can tell me anything. I won’t judge._ ”

Stan was trapped fully under his control, he had no room to fight or struggle, not even in the walls of his mind.  With nothing to hold himself back Stan spoke honestly.

“There’s something about your face. I dunno any of the fashion mumbo jumbo, structure or something? But you got a nice face. You got a face cameras were made for. I bet if you were human you’d be a model for sure. Be in movies too.”

Stanly kept trying to use his hands as he spoke, and since both were trapped at his sides still he’d just wiggle around. Marcos found it rather adorable. But he did relent slightly and set one of Stan’s hands free.

He found himself caught off guard yet again when that hand came up to hold his cheek.

“I just really like your face, ya’know?”

Macros had to snap himself out if his daze a little. It was like Stan’s hand had an enchantment of its own for a moment there. “I… I didn’t know actually.”

“Oh, well now you do!” Stan said in a happier tone now that one of his hands were free. His hand stayed rested of Marcos face, thumb rubbing at his jaw a little, And Marcos couldn’t find it in himself to command Stan to remove his hand just yet. “And I really love the hair too. I think I’ve always liked long hair, seeing it blow around in the wind. All free like that? And you really rock the look! I love seeing it move when you swim.”

“When I swim?” Marcos asked. He swam all the time, surely he would have noticed Stan starring. And why his hair of all things?

Stan grinned, hand finally moving from his face, only to slide back and tangle itself into his hair. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool. When you move it trails behind you, gliding around, and snapping when you make a turn. Like ribbons or something. It’s almost like a second plume of tentacles. Except on your head instead, and not slimy. If that makes any sense. And most folks look ugly when their hair’s all wet, but you never seem to look bad, even when it’s all flat like this.”

Marcos wanted to say something, but he wasn’t sure what exactly. He’d never heard something so ordinary for him said with such affection. And despite himself, he wanted to hear Stan say more. He carefully grabbed Stan’s hand and pulled it away so he could focus better. But even as he did Stan’s fingers brushed through his hair before disappearing completely. The feeling made him want to curl around Stan a little tighter.

“ _Anything else?_ ” He asked, using more of his power than was necessary probably.

“Oh man, where do I even begin?” Stan moaned, wracking his brain, but still smiling. “Uh, I said face but I don’t think I talked about just your eyes yet, right?”

“No, not yet.” Marcos replied back, curious to hear what Stan would say next.

“Well they’re pretty too. Got these big blue eyes. And whenever I look at you, I just feel drawn to them.”

“Ah, yes. My powers can be wonderful sometimes.” Marcos said, these compliments might have been stroking his ego a little too much but Marcos couldn’t bring himself to care just yet.

“No it’s not that.”

“No?”

“When you aren’t using this dumb magic, you’re just relaxing with me on the boat. You’re eyes are this blue-green. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so bright on human. Ya’know without retouching photos and that crap. It’s real on you. And they’re beautiful. Like someone put the ocean right in your eyes.”

Marcos found himself smiling at Stan’s last words. He’d heard similar words countless times throughout his younger years. “One of the many blessings of being a child of Poseidon.” He said, bitter-sweetness showing through in his voice.

Stan eyebrows shot up at that. “Wait. So are you like a demi-god or something?”

“No, I’m too far down the lineage to be considered a being or worship or responsibility.” Marcos explained. As he spoke he could clearly see his Grandmother explaining the same thing to him ages ago. “However, he is our forefather and like all his other children he’s given us gifts. My eyes are just one such gift, a sign of my heritage and a reflection of my home.”

“And the whole hypno-dealy-o is another gift?”

“Precisely.”

“Huh… Learn something new every day.” Stan said. He kept trying to lean back now, probably trying to float on his back, Marcos assumed. Seeing as Stanly was posing no threat of escape Marcos let his tentacles go slack so Stan could fall back. Only a few tentacles still clung to his legs and middle, keeping him from floating too far off. “So, ya want any more compliments?”

“Do you have any more to give?” Marcos asked quietly.

He noticed Stan smirk before turning to look at him completely again.

“Scar.”

“My scar?” He asked, subconsciously crossing his arms.

“Yeah, it’s fucking badass man.” Stan said with a dreamy look on his face.

Marcos couldn’t comprehend the words almost. “It’s… It’s hideous.” It was disgusting, Marcos hated even looking at the thing permently marking his chest.

“I think it’s cool.”

“I think it’s an embarrassment.” Marcos huffed.

Stan rolled off of his back and swam back towards Marcos. Both hands now coming up to gently tug at his crossed arms. “I think it’s beautiful.”

These scars were a direct sign of his pride, his striving for independence and power and foolishness. All because he went after too many human sailors too young. He hated the scars, the giant disgusting, ghastly scars. And yet, at Stan’s prodding he let his arms fall away from his chest. To let himself be admired by this human.

Stan didn’t touch the scars but there was such an earnest look on his face he didn’t need to be. The whole time Marcos felt at war with himself. Trying to decide between fleeing as fast as his tentacles could take him and deal with the monster outside or inch closer to this strange human. The eyes never lie and Stanley Pine’s eyes were filled with such heartfelt affection. With actual love and concern. It was probably the strangest thing to happen to Marcos since falling into this odd town of Gravity Falls.

Stan was still holding both of Marcos’s writs. Marcos could break the hold whenever he liked. But he didn’t. He didn’t will himself too just yet. He realized he didn’t want to. Something about Stan, about everything he did drew Marcos to him. Kept him here. Made him feel like doing stupid things like this was alright.

He was so lost in thought, he didn’t fully realize Stan’s hands had moved until one was back in his hair and the other was sliding onto his back. Still he couldn’t will himself to move, to stop this. And when spoke in a soft but deep, slightly raspy voice Marcos wondered once again if Stanley Pines was truly human.

“You’re beautiful, Marcos.”

He was pulled into a kiss and sighed on the human’s lips. He decided right then and there someday, no matter how long it took, he would get Stanley Pines to do this again. Sincerely. Completely on his own free-will.

They kissed for a little while longer. Never going beyond a kiss but still so tender and kind it made Marcos’s insides feel clenched up. Until Marcos knew he had to stop this before it continued any further and pulled himself away and out of Stan’s grasp. Fantasies like this were fun, but it was dangerous to keep going on like this. Just playing along. Letting himself play along. He had to remember who was controlling who.

“Marcos wait! Did I do someth-” Stan had been swimming after him and once he got close enough Marcos tightly wound his plume of tentacles back around the human. Making sure both hands were tied down as well. Stan tried to struggle but stopped when he realized he was being pulled closer to the other. “Look, if that was too much I’m sorry. I didn’t-“

“ _Hush~!_ ” Marcos said, eyes shining bright with his power and his voice layering in sweetness. “ _You did nothing wrong. You were perfect. And I have to thank you for that. We’ve had a lot of fun together. But now it’s time to sleep.”_

Stan squirmed around a little. Marcos just squeezed him tighter. He could see Stan’s movement growing more lethargic, his eyes began blink slower. He just need one more push.

_“Sleep, love. I promise I’ll be here when you wake up…”_

He had no doubt Stan would wake up furious. Marcos might have had no qualms about his powers but he knew how other disliked them, how they violated their own will. Most people woke up again after falling into his clutches would act outraged, insulted, humiliated even. Stan would be the same. Especially being a person who valued their independence. But Marcos still intended on staying right here with Stan until he woke up and was completely back in his own mind.

At the moment, Stan was still blinking owlishly at Marcos, eyes still reflecting back Marcos’s magic. It was also a clear reminder what Stan did was only because Marcos told him to. Sure Marcos used his powers so people revealed who they truly were but it was still something Stan didn’t willingly share.

Someday though. Someday he would find a way to have Stan act like that again. But willingly.

When Stan’s eyes closed completely, Marcos maneuvered him around so his head stayed out of the water but they’d both still be comfortable.

“Night Marcos.” Stan mumbled before drifting off into peaceful slumber, snoring softly.

“Pleasant dreams, my love”

And when he said the words, “my love” Marcos realized for the first time he might actually mean “my love”. The thought both delighted and terrified him all at once.


End file.
